The Heroes of Mobius
by Telgin
Summary: A SatAM fan novel of an entirely new freedom fighter group as they struggle to survive against Dr. Robotnik, their bleak environment, and themselves. Cameos from established characters. Moderate violence, no adult themes. Comments encouraged!
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

"_You'll never get away with this, Julian!"  
-King Maximilian Acorn_

"Genius, pure genius," Dr. Julian Ivo Robotnik muttered as he lovingly stroked his pet, "Don't you think so Cluck?" He grinned as the robotic chicken looked up to him and returned a series of low chirps. "I thought so."

From his mechanical throne, he watched as schematics and images danced and flickered across the grand computer screens hanging from the ceiling. Faint chimes echoed through the cavernous room as computers completed calculations. On the display jutting from his chair's armrest, a few images quickly raced across the screen, followed by the words, "Data Logged – System Ready."

Robotnik grinned evilly at the small screen, and pressed a series of buttons along the other armrest. The images that once haphazardly filled the main computer display faded into blackness, replaced by a series of views from outside of the command center. With a few further button presses, the camera views shifted their focus to a single, broad area. Just visible in the distance, armies of workers toiled at the scene.

Robotnik took a deep breath, imagining himself at the site barking orders. That very site would mark the beginning of the end of any resistance to his ultimate rule over the planet. While his prior plans might have ended with less success than he had hoped, this time there would be no way to stop him. He failed to fight back a chuckle as the thoughts raced through his mind. He wondered why the scheme had never occurred to him before.

As he continued to watch the laborers milling about the site, he heard the irritating squeal of one of the room's poorly maintained doors grinding open. Instantly his mood soured, and he swiveled the massive metal chair to meet the fool who dared interrupt him. Standing well below eye level, a small and familiar, if somewhat detested, man nervously looked back. Cluck mimicked its master by scowling and letting out a hiss as it caught sight of the man.

"What is it, Snively?" Robotnik growled at his nephew.

"S-sorry to interrupt, sir. I just came to inform you that we are ready to begin work on the first phase of your plan," he stammered in a nasally voice. As he finished, his eyes caught the images of the workers on the computer screens. "I-I suppose you see that already."

"Yes, Snively, I am aware that work has finally begun. How long do you anticipate it to take?"

Snively swallowed hard and continued, "At the present work rate, I estimate it to take about three months before the first phase is ready. From there it's all speculation."

The news elated Robotnik's mood slightly, but he questioned, "Why so long? Surely this task isn't too much for you to handle, is it Snively?"

Snively fought back the first responses that came to mind. He looked down to his hand-held computer and offered, "No... sir. It's just that in light of the recent attacks we have sustained, we're short on workers. There's still a lot of repair work to be done in several of our industrial districts, and the old nuclear reactor that was destroyed is still leaking radiation. Did you think they were slacking off? They're robots..."

Robotnik's eyes grew wide as he demanded, "What was that Snively?"

"Oh, uh, I just said that perhaps they were slacking off? Just a joke sir!" he nervously replied, backing off slightly.

Robotnik sank back into his chair, cooling off. "Very well Snively... you are free to go."

Snively eagerly accepted his dismissal, and made his way to the door.

"Oh, and Snively..." the massive man called to him.

"Yes, Dr. Robotnik?"

"You know I hate jokes."

"Yes, sir," Snively swallowed, leaving the room.

Before Robotnik even had the opportunity to swivel his chair back, the image of two of his security robots approaching caught his eye. The two humanoid machines marched through the opened door up to him, saluting their master.

He gazed into their red-slit eyes and shouted, "What is it!?"

"Two intruders were captured my lord. What are your orders?"

Robotnik's mood shifted again, "By chance was the hedgehog one of them?"

"No my lord, the captured intruders were both ferrets."

He sneered at the news. Anyone who dared invade his city would be dealt with appropriately, but these two had interrupted him at a very bad time.

"Warm up the roboticizer. I will deal with them momentarily."

The two SWATbots acknowledged the command and left the room through another door. Alone with his pet again at last, Robotnik turned his attention to the work site once more. Already he could imagine his victory over the paltry freedom fighter groups. Once the grim cogs of his plan were set in motion, nothing, and no one could stop them. Not even that blasted blue hedgehog could. Soon, the whole world would be his city, with every creature on the face of the planet under his rule.

He continued to observe the site for several minutes before shutting the computers off. "This is going to be a great day, Cluck, but there are other matters to attend to for now. Perhaps we should see to our new friends?" He smiled broadly and placed Cluck on his shoulder as he made for the door, saying, "A great day indeed."


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

_Armadi – Outskirts of the former Kingdom of Acorn  
8:32 PM_

As night fell across the horizon, the dimly lit path before Kyros the echidna slowly began to fade away. With every step the beams of light streaming through the branches overhead grew fainter, prompting a muffled sigh as he trudged ahead.

He felt anger involuntarily forming on his face as he thought about how much he hated watch duty. For nearly seven years now he had served his share of time, waiting around and watching for anything that might pose a threat. Right now he imagined his friends would be winding down and getting ready to call it a night. Under his breath he cursed Robotnik for making him endure his current life. He and his surrogate family of friends had been in a pitched battle for survival against the crazed tyrant, all having escaped into hiding long ago.

A flood of memories raced through his mind for a moment. He faintly recalled escaping the destruction of his home town as Robotnik's armies rolled through. At the age of fifteen he had been forced to fend for himself for weeks in the wilderness, always moving in order to stay ahead of Robotnik. He remembered stumbling across the remains of a town named Armadi, ruined and destroyed by the fighting. Mentally and physically exhausted, he welcomed the hospitality of the few remaining people there. With nowhere left to go, he remained with them, eventually establishing a small settlement and working together to stay alive.

With every passing memory his hatred for Robotnik grew, and he could feel rage beginning to well up within himself. He paused for a moment to calm down, relaxing his clenched jaw and taking a deep breath. Robotnik would pay someday, he reassured himself. After taking the moment to recollect himself, he pressed on. Thankfully, the wooded area was beginning to become familiar and he would soon have an opportunity to sit down and collect his thoughts.

After a few more minutes of forcing himself along, he found himself entering a small clearing, the path once again dimly illuminated by the moonlight filtering through the sparse branches above. He slowly stepped into the open area and began glancing at the trees surrounding him. Almost instinctively he casually made his way towards a patch of trees obscured behind a massive tangle of vines. He silently began sifting through the mess, stopping as he caught a glimpse of a camouflaged rope dangling among the branches. With a solid tug, a disguised hatch several meters above in the tree canopy flopped open, dislodging a few leaves and sending particles of dust and dirt drifting down towards him.

Kyros observed the darkness above him, and let out an agitated sigh. He snatched a large rock from the ground and hurled it towards the opening. A loud thump ensued as the rock impacted a solid surface. As the rock landed a few feet away, a worn rope ladder tumbled down in front of the echidna. He reached for the ladder, pausing as the laser rifle slung about his shoulder slid down his arm. Silently he cursed Robotnik again for the need to carry the weapon. The weapon hung around his wrist for a few moments before he forcefully tossed it back into a more secure position.

With the rifle secured, he slowly climbed the ladder into the pitch black room above. As he hoisted himself inside, he tossed his gun into the corner and activated the lights with rehearsed precision. He squinted into the dim lights filtering through the grating above for a moment before pulling the ladder back up and depositing it in a sloppy pile. After firmly closing the hatch below, he stepped over to a bank of computers lining the far half of the room. His hand danced across a series of power switches, and after hearing the telltale sound of the computers booting he plopped himself in a wooden chair against the wall.

He took a deep breath, removed his heavy coat and draped it across the back of the chair. As the computers in front of him began their usual procedure of flashing images and making annoying noises, he kicked back, leaning the chair against the wall and placing his feet on the console nearest him. A loud, hollow clang filled the station as his foot dislodged an empty can resting beside the chair. Instantly, the aroma of coffee filled the room.

Many of his friends drank coffee to help stay awake during watch duty, and there was always a supply of it to be found in the watch station. He had never been able to acquire a taste for it though, as the only source they had was Robotropolis itself, and Robotnik never threw out anything of decent quality. Instead, he had picked up a slightly less savory habit to keep himself sane during the long hours. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a thin, papery tube. From his other pocket, he pulled an old lighter.

He placed the cigarette in his mouth and struck the lighter. A few deep breaths later, he placed the lighter back into his pocket and prepared himself to perform the same ritual that he had flawlessly enacted for so many years. He quickly checked the computer screens once more, and after confirming that nothing was awry, he cracked open the window beside him. No one else cared too much for his habit, and he preferred to keep it a secret that he still smoked. He had tried to quit a few times before, but he found the temptation too hard to resist out here by himself.

Soon though the strengthening winds outside began to become too cool for him to stand. The pollution spewing from Robotropolis on a constant basis had long ago begun to take its toll on the weather. Predicting it was now almost impossible, with temperatures swinging from searing heat during the day to near freezing at night. Rain could come at any time, and there was no guarantee that it was clean. Kyros frowned slightly and tossed the cigarette out of the window, promptly shutting it. Even he couldn't stand the buildup of the smoke for too long.

With the company of his cigarette gone too, he crossed his arms and blankly stared at the computers. Already he could feel the gentle, soothing call of sleep. He would fight it for as long as he could, but the result was always the same. Maya would have his neck if she knew he was sleeping on the job, but there was little that he could do. He glanced over to the far corner of the room, eying the laser rifle lying atop a pile of various pieces of trash and junk. In all of the years that he had performed watch duty, there had never been any need to use it. Robotnik had never come looking for them, and the few times that the alarms had been tripped were nothing.

Kyros felt his eyelids growing heavy. He shifted himself into a more comfortable position and awaited the inevitable. Exhausted from the day's work, Kyros groggily blinked a few times. He wouldn't be able to fight it much longer, but it wasn't like it mattered. Nothing ever happened.

* * *

"Well then, has Seltic heard anything interesting over the antenna?" Maya asked her companion, brushing a long silvered hair from her face.

Sissera sighed and prepared herself for a rehearsed reply, "No ma'am, but he hasn't been checking it as much lately. He said Robotnik's been pretty quiet for the last week or so."

"That usually means he's up to something," Maya replied. She glanced over the top of her glasses and flashed an innocent smile, "And you can bet that he's not preparing to announce his surrender."

"Seltic said pretty much the same thing. He's always got the computers on, waiting for something to happen. I wish he'd get out some more, he's going to grow to that chair. All of those computers keep the place hot too."

"Now don't be that way. That's just how he is, and I sleep better at night knowing that he's taking this seriously."

"I guess so, but he should get some sunlight every once in a while. He's going to go crazy just sitting around in his workshop all day. He keeps trying to find a way to reverse the roboticization process, or something."

Maya chuckled. "Oh, he'll be alright, and it would be well worth the time and effort if he did find a way to reverse it." She glanced off in the general direction of Robotropolis and sighed. "I do wonder what the good doctor is planning though."

"Nothing too serious I hope. Maybe just some overdue house keeping."

"I don't imagine he does too much of that," Maya replied before laughing quietly until a sharp, cool breeze rolled through the valley. She took a deep breath and pulled the blankets draped across the back of her chair down to cover her more fully. "I'm getting too old to be out in this kind of weather," she said, looking over to Sissera. "I think I'm in the mood for some tea. Why don't you come inside and join me for a cup."

Sissera pondered the opportunity for a moment, and replied, "Sure, sounds good. I've got some sensor reports for Seltic, but I'm sure he's busy enough sorting through the junk Kyros brought back from his last raid." She eagerly stood and helped Maya up.

Maya slowly walked up the steps next to the chair and pulled a key card from her pocket. She paused for a moment as she inserted the card into the lock. She turned her head slightly and took a few light sniffs.

"Something wrong?" Sissera questioned, ascending the steps.

"I'm not sure, I thought I smelled something burning for a second. It's gone now," she replied as she pulled the card out of the now flashing receptacle.

"I didn't smell anything, but I guess it could have been Seltic. There's no telling what he could have fried or burnt up in his lab."

Maya placed the card back into her pocket as the door slid open. "You're probably right," she said as she stepped into the building. As she stepped inside, she pressed a button to activate the lights. The panels within the ceiling flickered to life, filling the room with blinding light before fading to a tolerable level. Maya blinked a few times as her eyes adjusted to the lighting, and closed the door as Sissera walked in.

"I could probably get Seltic to look at those lights, they look like they need a little adjusting," Sissera said as she headed for the table situated in the center of the kitchen.

"That won't be necessary, they're usually fine. And Seltic's probably too busy to look into it," Maya replied as she opened a cupboard door.

"I may could do it, but it depends on exactly what's wrong with them," Sissera called to her, coaxing a small space heater to life.

"Oh, don't worry about it," she replied, placing a pot of water on the stove and turning to face Sissera.

Sissera set her pack on the floor and pulled a chair out from under the table. "I haven't seen Kyros or Stanley around in a while, did you put them on watch duty together?"

"Heavens no! I may be old but I'm not crazy, those boys just can't stand being around each other for too long."

"I don't understand it either, Kyros is just picky...," Sissera started before something caught her attention. She looked about the room for a second, sniffing the air.

"Everything alright?"

"Yes ma'am, I just thought I smelled something on fire a second ago."

"It's probably that heater. That thing's been giving me fits lately."

As the the water heated, Maya left the stove and joined her company at the table. She opened a small can of candy and offered one to Sissera. "Want one?" she asked, taking one for herself.

"Thank you," she replied, accepting a piece. "So, is Stanley out in the woods tonight then?"

"I don't know for sure, but I haven't seen him all night, so I would imagine...," Maya said before a familiar acrid odor caught her attention. She looked around the room before fixing her eyes on the heater. "Do you still smell that heater? I think we may should turn it off before we burn down the whole town."

"I think I do smell it now, but it doesn't smell like the heater. Maybe I should take a look outside," Sissera replied in a worried tone. As she stood, she halted at the sound of thunderous footfalls outside of the building. The door suddenly flew open, leaving the silhouette of a porcupine standing in its place.

Maya nearly jumped from her seat, covering her chest. "Stanley! You nearly gave me a heart attack! What's the matter?"

"There's not much time to explain, but we've got big problems," he answered, his face consumed in a worried expression.

* * *

Seltic groaned as he carelessly tossed another random piece of machinery into the growing pile of debris on his workshop floor. For hours now he had been sifting through the scrap that had been recovered from Robotropolis during the last raid, but as usual there was little of interest. Of the sacks of robot parts, scrapped construction materials, and chemicals, Seltic had only managed to find a few parts that could be put to any use.

Kyros and the others meant well, but they didn't know what to take while they were in the city. When his sister went, the haul was usually better, but even Sissera didn't know exactly what to get. Seltic tried to avoid tagging along during the raids if he could avoid it, as the potential combat was anything but his specialty. As he thought, he realized that even he didn't really know what was left to salvage from the landfills and scrap heaps that littered Robotropolis anymore. Robotnik didn't throw out much that Seltic hadn't studied yet.

He snapped out of his trance of thought as he uncovered a familiar series of circuit boards and cables. Instantly he recognized it as the control system for many of the electric motors that were scrapped all across Robotropolis. While it certainly wasn't an amazing find, he could always put it to use. Seltic smiled slightly at the find. At least the night wouldn't be completely wasted.

With renewed energy, he dove into the pile once more. Amazingly, the remaining mound of junk seemed to be filled with many useful components. Robotnik must have gone through a series of upgrades in one of his factories, he guessed. As he pulled aside a piece of armored plating, Seltic nearly dropped his flashlight. Beneath a few chunks of a ceramic heat shielding, a peculiar small plastic box sat in the center of his view. Seltic brushed the other important parts aside and eagerly grabbed the promising find.

As he analyzed the connectors lining the sides of the small box, his enthusiasm grew. He couldn't tell at this point what it originally belonged to, but it was clear that as he had hoped, it was a memory module. Regardless of their source, he could learn a great deal, and with any luck it may have come from one of the robots that filled Robotropolis. He always found something of interest in the modules when they could be found, but getting data out of them was a time consuming process.  
He glanced up to the clock mounted on the far wall as he moved the memory module to a safer location near his computer. As usual, time had escaped him, and it was nearing midnight. Seltic would often work well into the morning with such promising potential, but even he knew that it would be best to wait until morning before trying to extract the information from the delicate component.

Satisfied with himself, Seltic closed the tool set on the floor and placed it on a table littered with other tools and trash. He kicked the worthless parts still left on the floor into a slightly more manageable pile, and walked over to the computer to check it before leaving. As he passed by the only window in the cluttered workshop, the image of someone approaching caught his eye. Judging by its size and determined pace, it could only be Vladimir. Seltic swallowed and took a deep breath. Vladimir never stopped by to just say hello.

The badger barged through the door with surprising force, causing Seltic to jump back a step. Vladimir glanced over the shop briefly before fixing his gaze on the hedgehog. He stepped forward into the room and said, "Seltic, Maya needs to see you, there's a problem."

"Wh-what's the matter? Is she alright?" he asked, startled.

"She is fine, but Stanley has returned from the woods, and he claims that there's a forest fire. He and Maya believe that we may be in trouble," he dryly replied before marching back out of the door and down the path.

"A fire?" he replied at last, long after the badger had disappeared.

* * *

"What's all of this about!?" Tantalus growled, " I was in bed and Vladimir barges in and drags me outside, grumbling something about Stanley and to meet here." He found an empty space in the now crowded room, leaned against the wall and folded his arms in disgust.

"Sorry for the inconvenience, but we've got a big problem," he heard Stanley's distinct voice call from outside. The porcupine slowly walked inside, turning his attention away from the woods lining the entrance of the valley that their settlement resided in.

"Yeah, I gathered that much. Care to explain what the problem is exactly?"

Stanley frowned, trying to ignore his tone. "While I was out in the woods a few minutes ago, and I noticed a large fire starting up in the woods. It looks like it started outside of the valley, and we can probably contain it is we move quickly, but it's already engulfed the watch station and cut us off from outside."

Tantalus grew wide-eyed and silent for a moment. He glanced around the members present in the room, and came to a realization. He meekly asked, "Wait, who was on watch duty?"

"Kyros, and that's the worst part. He hasn't reported back yet."

"What do you mean!? Didn't you try to get to him?" the squirrel shouted, his accusing gaze fixated on Stanley.

"Of course, but there was no way. As I said, the flames had already cut us off from the station. I figured that it would be best to get back here as soon as possible and hope that he had already returned."

"But he hasn't, so we need to get going as soon as possible," Maya called from an adjacent room before appearing moments later. She surveyed the crowd and demanded, "Where is Seltic? We don't have time for this."

"On his way," Vladimir announced as he stepped inside.

She sighed and looked back to the group, "Is Marcus here?"

"Back here," the young raccoon answered as he stepped from behind Sissera.

"Ok, do you know where Seltic stored all of the fire fighting equipment we found a couple of years ago?"

"Yes ma'am, I think so. It's all in the storage garage, in the basement."

"Alright, Tantalus do you still have Kyros' spare key?" she asked quickly. As the squirrel nodded and uttered a quiet confirmation, she went on, "Then you two head over and grab all that you can. I'll send Seltic too as soon as I find him."  
Tantalus nodded and eagerly bolted out the door, Marcus trailing behind.

"Stanley, take Sissera and Vladimir and head into the woods. See if you can find Kyros, and do anything else you can."

"Understood," Vladimir confirmed before marching out the door without waiting for his partners.

Maya waited for everyone to leave before taking a deep breath and running her hand through her hair. It was going to be a long night, and she tried to mentally prepare for the worst.

* * *

As Tantalus slid to a halt outside of the immense storage garage he thrust his hand into his trench coat's pocket, nervously fumbling around for a few moments before producing a small plastic card. He sliced it through the reader impatiently, and groaned loudly as the system buzzed in protest. With slightly more control he tried again, wasting no time darting inside as the vehicle-sized door ground open.

Marcus peered inside the cavernous building, squinting as he tried to focus in the complete lack of light. "Uh, you might want to turn the lights on," he shouted into the darkness. After hearing Tantalus loudly stumble over an anonymous assortment of discarded debris he followed him inside, feeling around for the lighting controls.

The lights coughed to life, emitting a loud hum and shedding a weak yellow tone onto the dirt and dust choked room. Just a few steps inside, Tantalus had come across one of the countless heaps of looted equipment and discarded food containers.  
Tantalus sneered and pulled himself from the collapsed mountain. "How does Kyros live in all of this? It's worse than Seltic's shop," he moaned as he jumped to his feet. "Where did you say they stored everything?" he asked Marcus as he bolted for the stairs lining the far wall.

"Wait, wait! It's all down here I think," Marcus yelled after the squirrel, who had already reached the scaffolding at the peak of the stairs.

"What!?"

"Down here," he continued, pointing at a partially obscured hatch integrated into the floor.

Tantalus scowled and sprinted down the stairs, halting as he reached his companion. He haphazardly brushed the debris pinning the hatch aside, and grasped the handle. Despite several heroic attempts to dislodge the worn hatch, he only managed to shake a few flakes of paint from the grip. The squirrel muttered something under his breath and glanced up in search of a tool to help pry the door open.

"Hold on," Marcus said quietly as he tried to read a weathered label beside the hatch. "I think you're supposed to turn the handle first," he continued, squinting in the dim light.

Tantalus wasted no time in following his suggestion, and with another mighty tug the hatch finally gave way. Lights in the basement below instantly illuminated as the door was pulled open, revealing a short drop onto a flat concrete floor. He immediately squeezed through the opening, and instantly hurried off towards the first container that came into view. Marcus followed in a slightly more cautious manner.

"Man, there's a ton of stuff down here. Where is the equipment at?" Tantalus asked as he yanked open a locker door.  
"Right here, I think," Marcus replied, pointing towards an array of footlockers against the wall.

"Alright, what do we have?" the squirrel asked himself after snatching one of the lockers open.

"I don't know, I wish Seltic was here."

"I'm here," the two heard Seltic shout from the main floor before he dropped into the basement. He removed a pack from his back and opened the cover. He mumbled to himself, "I hope we have enough to deal with this."

"Great, so what do we do?" Tantalus questioned as he opened another locker.

"Just a sec," he answered, turning to Marcus. "Marcus, there's a bunch of cloaks in that closet over there," he told him, pointing towards a pair of doors behind the trio, "take as many as you can hold back to Maya."

"Yes sir," the raccoon confirmed.

"I guess that leaves the oxygen tanks to us," he said to Tantalus. He motioned for him to help and continued, "I hope we won't need these, but you never know." Tantalus grasped one of the large cylinders and pulled it from the locker, staggering under its weight. Seltic helped him set it gently on the ground, and noticed the distressed expression on his face.

"Don't worry about Kyros, I'm sure he'll be fine," Seltic tried to console him.

Tantalus helped him remove another cylinder, offering only a meager, "Yeah."

* * *

In the clearing just ahead, Maya saw the anxious image of Tantalus, fidgeting and looking about. As she drew close, he caught sight of her and turned to face her.

"What do I do?" he asked as he glanced into the forest in the general direction of the blaze.

She sighed and looked down, "I'm not sure yet. Where's Seltic?"

"On the way, he was picking up one last bag of stuff when I left."

"I think it's best that we stick together then," she said moments before noticing Seltic jogging towards them from the garage.  
"Alright, I'm ready," he announced as he reached the two. He took a deep breath and situated a pack on his back.

"Before we go, you two might want to take these," she said to them. She removed a pair of rifles from her shoulder and offered them to the two.

Tantalus puzzled over the comment, accepting the weapon. "What do we need these for?"

"Robotnik?" Seltic grimly asked her.

"Exactly, we don't know how this fire started. I wouldn't want to be caught unaware, if he really is the cause."

"Not a bad idea," he acknowledged, accepting the other laser rifle. "I think we should get going though. Where's Marcus?"

"I sent him up ahead with Sissera. They both took the respirators, temperature cloaks, and air tanks to the others," Maya answered before setting off down the path.

The others immediately followed, and Tantalus quickly overtook the other two and disappeared into the forest ahead. Maya would normally have scolded him for running off by himself, but she realized the urgency and increased her own pace. The normal series of scents that filled the forest were now thoroughly replaced by the acrid odor of burning foliage. The path before them was now almost impossible to see, the glow of the fires ahead flooding their views and eclipsing the glint of light from the moon overhead.

She began to hear shouts from Vladimir ahead, and soon she and Seltic came across the badger and his enlisted subordinates working hard at constructing firebreaks and digging trenches. Tantalus was already beside Stanley, helping him prepare a large gap to stem the flow of fire. Vladimir was slightly deeper into the woods, tossing mounds of dirt into the air with his shovel as he tried to extinguish a handful of smaller flames.

Sissera and Marcus stood a few meters away, looking on as the others worked. As she caught a glimpse of Maya and Seltic approaching, she quickly made her way to them with Marcus in tow.

"I think we may be in a bit of luck," Sissera directed to Maya. "They've mostly got the fire under control right here, and as Stanley suspected most of the fire was outside of the valley."

"That's wonderful to hear, have you found Kyros?"

Sissera looked away, "No ma'am, not yet. There's no sign of him, but the worst part is that the path up ahead is cut off by the fire. We don't have any way to reach the station."

"I think I may have a solution for that," Seltic chimed in. He grabbed his sack and pulled a small metallic sphere from inside. "These are fire suppression charges. I didn't think we would ever have to use them, but I think they should be enough to break past the fire. With any luck, it's already burnt down near the station."

"Good. Let's see what we can do," Maya said to him.

Seltic nodded and led the group up the path. He stopped a short distance away from the flame-engulfed road, raised the charge and pressed the arming plate. With a hand signal for the others to step back, he looked into the fires. He squinted as he tried to aim into the blinding glow, and hurled the charge with all of his might. As it disappeared into the abyss, he turned and covered his ears, prompting the others to follow his example.

Moments later an explosion echoed through the forest, rocking the group as an arctic wind blew past them. Where fires once claimed the woods, the path laid bare, grayed and charred. Seltic righted himself and brushed the new layer of icy dust from his coat.

He briefly surveyed the cleared path, and said to the others, "A bit more powerful than I expected. I've got a dozen of them, so we should have enough to reach the station." As he took a step forward, a multitude of small branches came tumbling from the canopy above. "Everything was probably damaged by the fire, so be careful."

The four slowly stepped forward into the recently sterilized area, and after all seemed safe they broke into a hurried pace. With the flames ahead growing nearer, Seltic pulled another fire suppression charge from his pack and readied it.

* * *

With a mighty toss, Seltic launched another charge into the last of the blaze separating them from the already fire-cleared forest, and ultimately the lookout station. The group braced themselves for the final blast, and following the inevitable showering of frost they sprinted down the bare path. Just a few meters ahead, the badly damaged husk of the station hung precariously from the trees, thin trails of smoke still drifting from the windows and cracked surfaces. Everyone grew silent as they approached the devastated building.

"I've still got two charges left, so I'm heading back to help the others," Seltic said, the first to break the silence.

"Take Marcus with you," Maya added, motioning for the raccoon to follow.

Seltic nodded, and the two disappeared down the path, leaving Sissera and Maya standing in the shadow of the station. They looked at each other, an almost tangible feeling of uneasiness washing over them.

"Kyros! Are you there!?" Sissera shouted towards the underside of the structure.

"If he's still in there, then I fear the worst," Maya said after no one responded.

Sissera grew silent for a moment, and replied, "I'd still better take a look." She removed her plasma gun from its resting place across her back and thumbed a switch on its side. A broad cone of light poured from a lamp fixed above the barrel, fighting to penetrate the thick clouds of dust and ash still hanging in the air. She passed the beam of light over the walls of the station, and walked underneath. Above, the incinerated remains of the ladder hung limply from the access hatch.

With the normal means of accessing the station gone, she began to study the grisly remains of the nearby trees for an alternative route. Her first instinct was to inspect the tree the station resided in, hoping to find the original footholds created during its construction. Unfortunately, as she suspected, they were burnt beyond recognition and use. She took a deep breath and turned to face an adjacent tree, noticing a low hanging branch after a moment of study.

"Be careful now, don't hurt yourself," Maya called to her.

"I'll be alright," She replied as she pulled herself onto the branch. A mild creak sounded as the branch bent under her weight. She flashed the light across the tree, highlighting another suitable branch to climb onto. Several twigs snapped from the branch as her boot scraped across its surface, warranting a flinch from Maya below. Sissera recollected her composure before hopping onto the branch and traversing it a short distance.

She caught sight of a similar branch protruding from the tree housing the station, and slowly inched her way towards it. With a careful, long step she managed to transfer herself to the tree. Two meters above, the station loomed. She continued to ascend the tree, taking great care to avoid a potential disaster. As she finally reached the necessary height to enter the station, she found herself with a difficult problem.

The only branch between her and her destination was over her head, and jumping onto the station was far too risky, and even if she made the jump it could collapse under her weight. After some thought, she deactivated the light on her gun and extended the strap as far as she could. She grabbed an adjacent protrusion for support, and began to throw the gun's sling upwards at the branch above. After a few unsuccessful tries, she managed to hook the branch.

Sissera squeezed the weapon tightly as she mentally prepared for the swing to the station. She glanced down to the ground far below, and swallowed. Maya watched up intently and closed her eyes as Sissera jumped from the branch. She glided through the air and gently on the roof of the station. Sissera froze as the joints fastening the station to the tree groaned, spraying fragments of bark as the bolts threatened to tear themselves free. With as much caution as she could muster, she slipped over to the edge and recovered her plasma rifle.

Maya sighed loudly and shouted up to her, "You shouldn't be taking risks like that, the whole thing could fall apart!"

"It's fine!" She shouted back, creeping towards a hatch on the roof. The hatch resisted her first attempts to pull it open, with the building creaking quietly with each tug. Eventually it gave in, loudly falling into the room below. Sissera cringed as it banged into the metal floor, vibrating the whole station. She reactivated and flashed her light into the darkness below before slowly lowering herself into the internals of the room.

The light illuminated a series of harmless objects, most nearly burnt beyond recognition. Books, clothing, and assorted remains littered the floor, impeding her search. The fire-proof walls had lived up to their name, sporting only a profuse coating of ash and dust, but the lights above were all destroyed, increasing her suspicions that the fire had originated in the station from an electrical problem. In the darkness, the shattered screens of the computers glinted as the light beam passed them. Her heart skipped a beat as a jacket caught in a tangle of fallen debris was revealed by her gun's light.

"Kyros?" she weakly asked. She nervously prodded the jacket with her gun as she drew close, taking a relaxing breath as she found it to be empty. Relieved to find the station empty of Kyros, she turned to the computers. As she feared, they were too badly damaged in the fire to still function. She shone the light across the computers and the nearby walls, trying to note the burn patterns. Determining the cause of the fire would be an involved process, but she hoped to get at least some indication. Her thoughts were cut short as a series of sharp cracks echoed through the room. Surprised by the sudden noise, she jumped back. As she landed, another deafening crack sounded through the room.

She immediately whirled around to face the source of the cracks. Her eyes grew wide as she saw the trees outside slowly moving by as the station tore itself away from its own support. She panicked for a moment, bolting for the roof hatch an instant later. As the station began to fall and disintegrate, she froze in place and braced as best she could for the impact.  
The station crashed into the ground with an orchestra of crunches and crisp cracks, followed by an eerie silence. Through the crushed metal walls and junk strewn about her, Sissera heard Maya let out a shout followed by a muffled cry. She rolled herself over and forced a fallen box from on top of her. After a moment of trying to reorient herself, she staggered to her feet. She passively noted smeared blood on the back of her hand where it had been pressed against her cheek, and tried to ignore the pain coursing through every part of her body.

Remembering Maya, she grabbed her gun and kicked out a window to free herself from the shattered hull. As she pulled herself free she found Maya standing rigidly a few meters away, with an obscured figure standing behind her. She raised her gun and aimed at the silhouette. The gun let out an audible chirp as she flicked the safety to arm the weapon.

"I've got you... you SWATbot... I'll bet you didn't think I'd find you here," the figure weakly said to Maya, fumbling with a weapon placed against her temple.

"Kyros?" Sissera shouted at him. "What are you doing!?"

"What? Oh... Seltic. I found this SWATbot wandering around here... I'll bet Robotnik's nearby too," Kyros continued.

"That's not a SWATbot," she shouted back, running towards the two. "It's Maya, put down the gun!"

Kyros lowered the rifle slightly and walked into the light. He observed Maya and muttered, "Oh, sorry. I can't see too well. Where's everyone else?" Maya immediately relaxed and let out her breath.

Sissera lowered her gun and disarmed it, prompting Kyros to do the same. She looked over the echidna, surprised to find his ash-choked fur and quills dripping with water. "They're back near Armadi, working on keeping the fire away. Kyros, what happened, and where were you?"

He took a deep breath. "I don't know. All I remember is that the fire was everywhere by the time I noticed it... I tried to run back, but there was no way. The only thing I could do... was to swim across the lake to the power plant and run back from there. When I saw that the fire was out here, I swam back since I wasn't even halfway there."

Sissera paused in thought. "Ok, I'll head back and tell the others. Hopefully they've got it under control by now." She turned and raced off down the path as she slung her gun back across her shoulder.

"Kyros, are you alright? Can you make it back to town?" Maya questioned Kyros as she tried to help support him.

"I'm fine," he replied, taking an uneven step. As he stepped, a small white tube fell from his pocket, rolling in front of Maya.  
She stooped down and scooped it up. She examined it closely and asked, "Kyros, is this... a cigarette?"


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

_Armadi – 11 hours later_

Line after line of data filtered onto the screen before Seltic, falling into place in the growing log. Seltic leaned back into his chair and plopped his boots onto the table beside the computer. He loosely grasped his mug and sipped the relaxing coffee as he pretended to pay attention to the meaningless array of garbled data. The data would take some time to decode before it could be read, but Seltic took comfort in that his computer flickered a confirmation of its ability to understand it. Robotnik was careless; the encryption patterns for the radio traffic Seltic was logging had been stolen years ago, and Robotnik hadn't bothered to change it.

He glanced at the clock on the screen and smiled as he took note of the early morning hour. After the events of the night before, he found himself unable to sleep. Seltic often found himself in such situations, either something found in Robotropolis was too much to resist studying into the night, or he would stay up late performing any number of tasks with his computer.

Seltic yawned loudly before gulping the last of his drink. He was normally resistant to boredom and could continue to watch the computer for some time, but even he realized that there were more productive things to be doing. Content to leave the computer to its task, he pulled himself from his chair and stretched. As he turned and prepared to leave the room, the computer blurted out an alarm. He instinctively whirled to face the screen, and watched curiously as the normal flow of letters and numbers were replaced by haphazard strings of red text. The computer again blared the alarm, prompting him to mute it. A warning flashed across the screen, "Unrecognized encryption pattern, possible data corruption – check connections."

He sighed and dismissed the warning message. This error was relatively common given the nature of their second-hand equipment, and Seltic suspected that the communication line from the antenna had come loose for the hundredth time. Normally he would leave it alone and fix it later, but there was little else to do at the moment, and he knew that Maya would want to monitor Robotnik as much as was possible.

He grabbed his coat, slid it on and checked his pockets for a couple of tools. His hands brushed against a set of instruments in his pockets, but he figured that odds were against them being the correct ones. From the drawers beneath the computer he pulled a pair of sensor tipped tubes, and plugged them into some of the powered computer ports lining the inside of his coat. He tossed them into one of his pockets and walked out of the door at the back of the room. He lazily clomped down the stairs, and grabbed a portable computer hanging from a hook at the base of the stairs.

The door slid open as he tapped the control, spilling daylight into the dim room. He stepped outside and slung the computer around his shoulder. In the early hours silence would normally encompass the sprawl of buildings, but the excitement of the night before had everyone up early. Seltic glanced over to the separation between the storage garage and the building he had converted into a house and workshop for himself and his sister. The image of the radio antenna jutted out from behind the garage.

With the computer secured he set out towards the antenna. As he approached, he unsurprisingly saw nothing immediately wrong with the setup. He snatched one of the connectors leading from the antenna loose and opened up the computer. After plugging it into the laptop he pressed a series of keys and studied the screen as data began to flow onto it. He puzzled as he watched the computer run a series of tests, all finding no problems with the connection. The only possible problem remaining was the cable running to his workshop, which would take days to replace.

Before accepting such a time consuming job, he plugged the portable computer directly into the antenna. Perhaps he would be lucky enough to only have to replace the antenna. At first, the computer reported a normal connection and began to read the encrypted data being broadcast from Robotropolis. Seltic sighed and frowned, instead it looked like he might have to replace some parts on his computer. As he prepared to close the computer, a familiar group of red, garbled data began to flow into the screen.

He relaxed at the result, and closed the computer. Finding a new antenna would be immensely easier than locating the needed computer parts, and they needed a new one anyway. He placed the connector back into the antenna and stood. As he took a step from behind the garage, he heard someone shouting something to him.

He turned to see Stanley racing towards him from the far end of the town, throwing his arm into the air to catch Seltic's attention. "What did you say?" he shouted back.

"Maya's called a meeting," he replied as he reached a more manageable distance.

"This early?" Seltic asked, stopping a few steps in front of him.

"Yeah, she said she thinks she knows what happened last night, and she doesn't seem too happy about it."

"I don't suppose she is, regardless of what happened," Seltic replied, staring into the woods towards the former location of the lookout station. "In the meeting hall right? Or is she at her house?"

"Yeah, the meeting hall. Where's Sissera? She wants everyone there."

"I think she's in bed."

"Ok, I'd better go get her then."

"No, I'll do it. I've got to take all of this stuff back anyway," Seltic said, raising the computer slightly.

"Alright then," Stanley replied as he turned and jogged back.

* * *

Despite having his field of view completely blocked by Vladimir's massive frame as the two entered the cafeteria hastily converted into a meeting hall, Stanley could feel the anxiety of everyone already inside. From the dining area, the mottled sounds of voices filled the hallway.

"What did Miss Maya want?" He heard Marcus direct to him.

"I'm not exactly sure, but I guess we'll find out soon," he replied as he entered the busy room. The spacious room that normally held only a pair of tables was now crowded with a slew of chairs, boxes of papers, and a handful of the others. Maya stood at the end of the room on a makeshift platform, nodding as she saw the three enter the room. Vladimir found a seat in the rear row as usual, followed by Stanley and Marcus. Kyros entered from a door to their right. He passively eyed everyone before taking his customary seat in front of Maya, beside Tantalus and Sissera.

"It looks like everyone but Seltic is here, so I'll go ahead and begin," Maya addressed them. "I don't suppose I really need to explain why I called this meeting, given the events of last night. There have been a few developments though, that I feel you should all know about."

She paused as Seltic quietly entered the room. "Sorry, I was having a bit of computer trouble," he said to her, smiling meekly.

"It's fine, just have a seat," she replied with a tired frown. Seltic found his usual seat beside his sister. "As I was saying, there are a few things that have come up that I think should be addressed."

She reached into one of the boxes and pulled out a handful of papers. After thumbing through them, she laid the first on a rusted and battered overhead projector. The image of the incinerated lookout station shined onto a screen fixed to the wall behind her.

"I had Seltic take a few pictures last night after everything calmed down, and I've come to a conclusion about the cause of the fire. But first, does anyone have any ideas on the cause, or any... confessions to make?"

Everyone glanced at one another in curiosity before returning their gaze to the out of focus image. Maya looked each one in the eye before fixing her eyes on Kyros.

"I would assume it was an electrical fire," Seltic offered. Sissera nodded in agreement.

"I think we all suspected that at first," Maya coolly continued. "But that's not what happened."

She reached into her pocket and produced a small white tube. "I found this on Kyros last night."

Kyros stiffened as she raised it high enough for everyone to see. "So?"

"It seems that Kyros has been smoking while on watch duty," she said to the group before looking down to Kyros again.

"Again, so? What does it matter?" he growled. "What does that have to do with the fire?"

She smiled and placed another picture onto the projector. "If you'll look closely at this picture, you'll see that the fire clearly started right here." The image showed a badly burned spot next to the window on the fallen station. "After reviewing the path of the fire, it's obvious that the fire started at the station, and Seltic couldn't find any evidence that it started inside."

"So, what are you saying then?" he snapped.

"I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that a cigarette that you discarded last night started the fire."

"You can't prove that, and so what if I smoke? It doesn't hurt anyone else."

"How can you say that? Not only did you smoke behind our backs, you ended up destroying the station, burning half of the forest down, and nearly killing yourself! Just imagine what would have happened if the fire made it back here!"

Kyros grew silent for a moment. "But it didn't. Look, everything turned out fine, no one got hurt. I'm sorry that I was still smoking out there, but we're all still alive. The station can be replaced."

She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. "Yes, but that's beside the point. Your bad habit and negligence could have caused a much larger problem. We're all still fine right now, but I don't know for how much longer."

"What do you mean?" Kyros asked, trying to change the subject.

"I mean, what about Robotnik? We know he didn't start the fire, but that's only the beginning. I'm sure that he knows it happened. What would happen if he happened to take a picture of the area with a satellite? If he decided to investigate the cause, he'd find us for sure!"

Seltic's eyes grew wide at the statement.

"What's the matter?" Tantalus asked as he caught a glimpse of his face.

"I think we might have a problem..."

"What do you mean?" Maya asked.

"Remember those computer problems I mentioned? I'm not sure they were problems after all."

"Go on."

"I was monitoring the radio traffic coming from Robotropolis earlier today, since I had nothing better to be doing and couldn't sleep. A few minutes before Stanley came and got me, the computer claimed that it was receiving some signals it couldn't decipher. At first I assumed it was a glitch or connection problem with the antenna, but I couldn't find anything. I didn't have time to finish investigating it, but it could mean that Robotnik is transmitting something using a new encryption scheme. Obviously something he doesn't want us to know about."

"Did you find out where the signal was heading?"

"I didn't try to find the source, but it couldn't have been too far away. It's possible that an air patrol saw the fire and transmitted the data back to Robtnik.."

Maya's face grew obviously worried. "We don't have any choice then. We're going to have to head to Robotropolis and find out if Robotnik knows anything. We can't take any chances."

"Great, then I guess I keep monitoring the signal while you guys are away."

Maya looked away. "We're all going. We have to cover as much ground as possible, as quickly as possible. That means that you're going too."

Seltic swallowed. "Uh... o-okay,"

"So unless anyone else has anything that they need to say, you're all dismissed until then. We'll be leaving immediately after dinner tonight."

Seltic looked down in thought. "If we're all going, then we'll need to take both hovercraft. One is still in bad shape after the firefight during its last mission. I'll need someone strong to help me get it back into shape. I should be able to get it working by tonight though."

"Alright, Kyros, unless you have something pressing, help him out. The rest of you, you might want to get some sleep if you haven't already. It's probably going to be an all night mission."

She waved as she stepped down to signal that the meeting was over. Everyone stood after a moment and began to quietly converse. Kyros groaned and rocked to his feet. "Alright Seltic, let's go."

As the two approached the door, Maya called to them, "And Kyros, I'm not done with you yet. We'll finish this after the mission."

Kyros cut his eyes to her and followed Seltic outside. Maya sifted through the dispersing crowd to find Marcus, and motioned for him to approach when he noticed her. "It's our turn to cook tonight," she said to him, smiling. "Unless you're too tired."

"No ma'am, I'm alright."

"Alright then, I'll see you back here tonight."

* * *

"Here it is," Vladimir said to Tantalus as he towed a flatbed cart into the storage garage. He pulled the cart to a stop next to the squirrel, who was busy staring into a clipboard.

"Huh? Oh, alright," he replied, snapping out of the trance.

"What do we need to get?"

Tantalus glanced back to the list. "First thing's first, I suppose. We'll need a few guns. Let's see...," he trailed off in thought. "Four or five should be enough. I think Kyros put them in the second locker room over there," he said, pointing blindly in the general direction.

"Very well," Vladimir said, marching off.

"I suppose we'll need some ammo too," he whispered to himself. "Grab a crate of energy packs while you're back there!" he shouted after his assitant.

Normally Kyros would be the one to select the weapons and equipment to be brought on a mission, but since he was busy helping Seltic the duty fell to Tantalus. The laser guns were all but a given for most missions, but selecting everything else wouldn't be as simple. He had spoken with Maya briefly, but she was too mentally exhausted to give him much more advice than that she wanted to keep as low of a profile as possible. After all, being caught during the mission would make the entire effort pointless.

"I could not find the power packs in the storage room," Vladimir interrupted, placing an armful of laser guns on the cart.

"You didn't see the crate back there?"

"No, the room was mostly empty."

"He probably put them in the main room," Tantalus muttered, dropping the clipboard. "I'll have to get the combination from his room. Grab a couple of radio sets while I'm gone."

"Understood."

Tantalus tucked the clipboard under his arm and made off towards the stairs against the back wall of the garage. The rusted metal steps creaked noisily as he ascended the stairs. Below, he saw Vladimir sifting through a crate, mumbling as his efforts failed to turn up what he sought. Tantalus clanked along the scaffolding towards another flight of stairs disappearing into the ceiling.

He slid his card key through a reader situated at the top of the stairs, and with a confirming beep the door before him snapped open. The lights inside the room shined to life moments later, illuminating a clothes-ridden floor. His eyes tracked across the countless objects hanging from the walls, stopping as he noticed a notebook piled under empty drink cans situated on a nightstand next to his bed. He groaned and forced his way through the sea of dirty clothes and discarded papers. The cans fell to the floor as he snatched the notebook, clacking against some solid object hidden beside the bed. Tantalus peered into the crevice and smirked as he caught a glimpse of a laser pistol. Kyros was never far from a weapon should he need it.

Tantalus flipped through the notebook, stopping at the last page of numbers. Every week the main storage room was given a new combination, and Kyros was responsible for keeping up with it. While it was a good safety precaution, Kyros only did it because the part that they had stolen to lock the room required it. It had been taken from Robotropolis many years ago, when Robotnik still bothered to keep a tight lock on everything.

Vladimir met Tantalus at the base of the stairs. "I can't find the radios, either."

Tantalus sighed, and replied, "I guess Seltic has them at his workshop. Could you go get them? I got the combo so I'll get the the rest of the stuff here."

"Very well."

As Vladimir left the garage he walked over to the main storage closet and keyed in the combination. He stepped into the cramped room and eyed the stacks of crates. Naturally, the crate of fresh energy clips was at the bottom of the mountain. He frowned at the thought of sending Vladimir off instead of having him move the heavy boxes. As he read the labels of the other crates he relaxed slightly. Fortunately they contained other things they should probably bring as well, such as some grenades, ion charges, and a heavy repeating laser cannon.

They were a little more than low profile, but there had been more than one occasion that they had been caught in a fighting retreat and could have benefited from better weapons. He smiled as he lifted the top from laser cannon's container. Kyros would have probably chosen it too.

* * *

"Could you hold this?" Seltic said to Kyros as he lifted the access door on the side of the hovercraft. "Just like that."

"Okay," the echidna replied, bracing the hatch open.

Seltic forced a lever next to the hydraulics down, resulting in a loud hiss as the drained system sprayed the remaining fluid onto the floor of the craft. He opened a floor panel and examined the torn hydraulic lines.

"You can let go now."

Kyros cautiously released the door. It slowly drifted down a short distance before locking into place.

"The hydraulics system is shot in the whole craft, but otherwise it's still in pretty good shape. I think the compressors in the left engine were hit too, but that shouldn't take too long to fix," Seltic thought out loud.

Kyros leaned up against the craft. "Anything else I can do?"

Seltic jumped out and looked around. He stooped down and looked underneath the ship, shining a light to brighten the underside. "Yeah, the fluid tank under here was hit by some SWATbot beams. Bring the jack over here and lift it up."

Kyros silently obliged, and stood up. He walked over to the jack and grabbed the handle, and dragged to over to the spot Seltic indicated. With Seltic's direction, he positioned the jack and pumped the handle several times to lift the hovercraft sufficiently.

"That's good," Seltic said as Kyros raised the lever the final time. He grabbed a powered drill and slid under the gap provided by the jack, positioning himself under the damaged tank. "So, how long have you been doing this?"

"Doing... what?" Kyros asked.

"You know, smoking while no one's looking."

"A few years I guess, why do you care?"

"Just curious. I guess it was too hard to quit after all."

"Yeah. But it doesn't matter now I guess, Maya's going to be watching me constantly."

Seltic unbolted the tank and hefted it slowly onto the ground. He pushed it out from under the ship, and asked Kyros, "Move that out of the way, would you?"

"Fine. I guess she's going to have me doing manual labor for the rest of my life too."

"Don't be that way. She's got all of our best interests at heart, including yours."

Kyros was silent.

Seltic slipped back out from under the ship and sat up. "Look, everything did turn out alright this time, but Maya has a point. This could have been a major disaster, and you could have been killed."

"I get that! I know how serious this is!"

Seltic paused for a moment. "I'm just saying that you shouldn't have any hard feelings over it."

"I don't. I'm just ticked off about the whole thing."

Seltic stood and picked up the damaged tank. "Well, don't worry about it. You know how she is, she'll probably cool off after a few days. If the mission goes well tonight, maybe she'll get over it even sooner."

"I guess."

"At least you'll get a chance to let some of this out on Robotnik tonight," Seltic said as he tossed the tank into a pile of junk lining the side of his workshop. He picked up a spare set of empty air tanks and placed them under the ship. "These aren't exactly made for this, but I think they'll work."

He bolted them into place underneath the ship and ran a series of hoses from the hydraulic system to them. "There's a tank of fluid for the system next to the shop somewhere, could you hand me the hose attached to it?"

Kyros grabbed the tubing running from a large, fixed container next to the shop. He tossed it under the the ship and asked, "This one?"

Seltic examined the connector and replied, "Yeah, thanks." He plugged it into a receptacle on the tanks and waited for a few moments as it charged the system. "Okay, that should be enough to test it. Pull the lever inside the ship up and try to open and shut the door."

"Alright," Kyros replied. He forced the heavy lever up and reached for the controls. The door clicked and folded shut as he pressed a button, locking into place as it closed. Another press of the button sent the door upwards again.

"Great, looks like the system will hold long enough for us to finish tonight at least. That just leaves a few details to work out. We've been working for a few hours, but it shouldn't take long to finish," Seltic said as he pulled himself from under the ship. As he began to lower the jack, a loud set of rings from a distant bell echoed through the town.

"Great, because it sounds like dinner's ready," Kyros replied.

* * *

The aroma of the cooking foods filled the air as Kyros approached the cafeteria. Given the stress that he had been through, food had been the last thing on his mind. The smell of whatever Maya was brewing was beginning to overwhelm any of his moderation remaining. Today he was extra thankful that Maya was cooking, as she was the only one to actually prepare much a meal. The others, himself included, were usually limited to heating up some form of prepackaged food looted from Robotroplis.

As he pushed through the double doors leading to the cafeteria, he found Marcus finishing his job of repositioning the tables and chairs. Whenever Maya cooked, she tried to get him to help out however he could. Without anyone his own age to interact with, Marcus enjoyed any opportunity to work with the others.

"So, what's for dinner?" Kyros asked.

"Spaghetti," Marcus replied, dragging another chair over to a table.

Kyros didn't like spaghetti much, but his hunger was beginning to return in full force. "Okay, need any help there?"

"No, I think I got it."

As Marcus returned to the separate kitchen, Tantalus and Vladimir entered the cafeteria. Vladimir silently walked over to his normal seat and sat down. Tantalus approached Kyros. "I went ahead and got most of the equipment together since you were busy."

"Thanks, anything worth mentioning?"

"Mostly the usual things. Laser rifles and ammo, radios, a few grenades, and the like. I did pick up the repeating laser though. I remember how rough things got last time so I brought it along."

"Sounds good. Who's lugging it around?"

Tantalus paused. "I didn't really think about it, but I guess Vladimir can. I guess it depends on the squads you pick."

"Yeah," Kyros replied, looking up as Stanley, Seltic, and Sissera filtered in.

As everyone found their usual spots and began to converse, Maya and Marcus appeared from the kitchen, with a large pot of spaghetti in tow. With a little help from Vladimir, they set it in the center of the table.

Maya walked to and stood at her seat. "Before we eat tonight, I think we need to have another little talk," she announced. Everyone stopped their conversations and looked to her. Kyros cringed.

"I know that we've been through a lot in the past day, and that there may be some hard feelings between some of us at the moment. But, I've been having a bad feeling about everything lately, and I just want us all to remember... that no matter what happens, we're all in this together. There's always that chance that one of us won't make it back tomorrow, and I don't want any of us to leave here tonight with a grudge or hard feelings."

Everyone looked around the room, remaining silent. "Does anyone have anything that they want to say before we eat?" No one spoke.

"Alright then, everyone dig in. And Kyros, I know you don't like spaghetti too much, but we're running low on supplies."

"It's fine," he replied, "I guess I deserve it anyway."

* * *

As Maya quietly entered the garage where everyone was assembling for the mission ahead, she passively observed the final preparations being made. Kyros and Tantalus directed Vladimir in the loading of the equipment onto the ships, Seltic worked feverishly to finish the repairs on the damaged craft, and Marcus and Sissera watched in a bored stupor. As she walked to the center of the room, Seltic triumphantly slammed the engine covers of the craft.

He looked over to her and said, "Okay, that should finalize the repairs. Well, it should last for a few days anyway, I'm not a real mechanic."

"Good, it looks like we'll make it to my deadline," she replied. Noticing that the equipment had been completely loaded, she threw her hand into the air to get everyone's attention. "Alright everyone, just a little briefing before we leave."

The group grew silent and turned their attention to her. "I just want to make it clear what our objectives are for this mission. First, and most critical, we absolutely must determine if Dr. Robotnik has recorded the fire, and if he has, if he plans to do anything about it.

"Second, like I said earlier today during dinner, we're starting to run low on food and other basic supplies. We also need to go ahead and begin looking for a replacement building or building supplies for the station. With any luck, we'll be able to locate something useful while we're in Robotropolis.

"And third, as always, we're on the look out for anything suspicious. We know that Robotnik is probably up to something, since he's been so quiet lately. If you see anything odd, or if you notice any targets of opportunity, don't hesitate to bring it up. We can't afford to miss anything.

"Having said that, I'm going to leave everything else up to Kyros, as usual. Kyros, if you would?" she continued, motioning for Kyros to pick up.

He blinked a few times in thought before answering, "Okay. I think that since everyone's going, and since we need to cover as much ground as possible, we'll split up into two squads. First, is me, Seltic, Tantalus, and Vladimir. We'll head to North Robotropolis and try to get into the main computers there.

"The second squad will be made up of Stanley, Sissera, Maya, and Marcus. You guys will head to east Robotropolis where Robotnik is always building new stuff. With any luck, you will find something there. If not, you can pick through the construction zones and trash heaps for anything useful."

"Anything else?" Maya asked.

"No, not really. Hopefully this won't be too tough."

"Alright then. Remember that we want to keep this as quiet as possible. Does anyone have any questions or suggestions?"

Everyone was quiet for a moment before Seltic spoke up, "I just want to remind everyone in squad two that I'm still looking for any damaged, destroyed, or just plain discarded robot parts. It doesn't matter if it's a SWATbot or a roboticized person."

Maya paused for a moment. "Anyone else?" No one spoke up.

"Very well then, if you're all ready, we can leave now."

"I'm ready," Kyros added.

"Me too," Stanley said.

Maya looked around, and asked, "Alright then, if anyone has anything they need to do before we leave, do it. We're leaving as soon as possible. Tantalus, you and Stanley are driving."

The two muttered a confirmation and entered their respective ships. The rest looked around momentarily before following, loading into their designated craft. Maya took a deep breath and waited for the drivers to start the hovercraft. As the two machines sputtered to life and flashed their lights on, she thumbed the garage light switch. The room fell dark, dimly illuminated by the internal lighting of the hovercraft. She mounted her ship and shut the door.

"Whenever you're ready Stanley," she directed to the front of the ship before taking a seat.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

_Robotropolis, formerly Mobotropolis, capital of the Kingdom of Acorn  
__Midnight_

As the two hovercraft slowed to a halt in a clearing, Kyros stretched and rubbed his eyes. During the multi-hour trip, his fatigue had finally caught up with him. As he began to become aware of his surroundings, he heard the distinct hiss of the radio kicking in. He glanced around the passenger compartment and rolled his eyes as he noticed Seltic fast asleep. Vladimir was predictably staring off into the wall in his own little world.

"Hey, Kyros, Maya wants to talk to you personally before we split up, open up the door," Tantalus called to him from the cockpit.

Kyros groaned. "Alright," he replied, standing. With a tug, the door slid open, spewing the cabin's warm air into the chilly air outside. Through the condensing moisture, he made out Maya leaving her ship. She trudged over to him, shivering in the cool air. "Yeah?" he asked.

"I just wanted to make sure that we're both on the same page here. We're stopping here, and will enter Robotropolis as soon as we can. Where exactly is your team heading?"

He paused and looked inside. "That's really up to Seltic to be sure, but we're heading to the northern districts."

"Okay, if we have to make a hasty retreat, meet back up here. If you get back first, wait as long as you can, but don't do anything stupid."

"I know, I know. You got a time table?"

She looked down to her watch. "I think it's best if we finish this within six hours. Any longer than that, and the SWATbots will be on full patrol."

"We'd have been here earlier if Stanley would drive faster," Tantalus called to them.

"It doesn't matter, we should have plenty of time. We're ready, so whenever you are, head out."

"We're leaving now then," he said, waving her off and moving back inside.

* * *

"Okay, this is the usual spot that we drop off at," Tantalus said to Kyros as he slowed the ship to a stop.

Kyros, now situated in the copilot's seat, replied, "You might better move us up a little further. I don't want to take the chance that Robotnik finally catches on to us today."

Tantalus throttled the ship up slightly and moved into a separate patch of shrubs. With any luck, they would provide enough cover that no roaming robots would find the ship before they returned. "That good enough?"

"Yeah, I guess," Kyros replied. "Let's get the others and head out."

The two stooped under the cockpit's doorway and entered the passenger cabin. Tantalus motioned for Vladimir to follow him as he opened the hatch and exited the craft. Kyros nudged Seltic, who replied with a groggy stare.

"We're here, you might want to get a move on."

Seltic nodded and yawned as Kyros followed Vladimir outside. Tantalus was already busy unloading the equipment that had been stored in the side hatches. "What have we got?" Kyros asked him as he glanced into the storage bay.

"Laser guns for us, and some grenades. We've also got the repeating laser."

"Okay, take a gun and watch for anything heading this way."

Tantalus agreed and took one of the laser guns. He slapped in a fresh power pack and checked the gun as he walked around the covering shrubbery.

Kyros looked into the hatch and spotted the repeating laser gun. A moment of thought convinced him to leave the heavy weapon to the badger. "Hey, Vlad, take this," he said to him as he pulled the large weapon from the bay. Vladimir donned the backpack power supply and shouldered the weapon without a word.

As he noticed Seltic jumping down from the doorway, he grabbed the tenrec's personal weapon. "I'm guessing you're taking this, right?" he said, offering the plasma gun to Seltic.

"Yeah, I just hope it doesn't act up if we need it," he replied, grabbing the rifle.

"More like when we need it," Kyros added. "I've got the radio set then," he continued as he snatched the kit and grenade pouch. After grabbing a laser rifle for himself, he shut the hatch and access door to the ship. "Let's go."

The three rounded the corner to find Tantalus crouched behind a bush, surveying the activity below. Kyros tossed him the grenades, and asked, "Anything unusual?"

"Looks routine so far. What's the plan?"

"I see that Robotnik's patched the hole we shot through the defense wall last time, so I guess we'll go through the sewers."

Tantalus frowned. "Again? He probably hasn't flushed the system out in years. It's almost unbearable."

"It's the safest way in. Let's go."

Everyone followed Kyros as he made his way down the hillside towards the ominous boundaries surrounding the city. Black smoke poured from unseen factories over the horizon. Putrid runoff spewed from pipe networks into the nearby river. Deep sounds of heavy duty construction in the distance filled the air. Defense turrets lined the walls, slowly scanning the woods as search lights tracked ahead. Kyros cringed as the smell of industrial wastes hit him. No matter how many times he had to deal with the city, it never got any easier.

Below, patrols of SWATbots marched along the city walls, pausing at any disturbance. A loud hum filled their ears as they descended the hill, prompting them to all instinctively dive for cover. The hum quickly faded into a thunderous buzz as a group of arm-length mechanical wasps burst from the forest and soared overhead, followed by a pair of small spherical camera pods. Kyros reflexively brought his laser gun to bear, followed by the rest of his squad.

"Those buzzbombers may have spotted the others, should we take them out?" Tantalus whispered.

"No, the spy-eyes are still with them so they must still be on patrol. We can't blow our cover yet," Kyros replied. He waited for a break in the SWATbot patrols, and slid down to ground level. "Let's go."

The squad darted out from cover, each member watching for SWATbots and other defenses as they raced across the barren, war torn land. Kyros waited for everyone to reach the wall before setting off again, heading towards the runoff system. He froze as he slid into a puddle of stagnant water. The splash echoed in their ears, forcing them to all huddle against the ground. Kyros laid silently in the water as he waited for a SWATbot to come investigate.

After several awkward seconds, he jumped up and motioned for the others to quickly follow him. He bolted for a large pipe jutting from the wall, once more splashing noisily as he made for its opening. The rest of the team followed suit, hefting themselves into the gaping hole as they reached the wall.

As Vladimir pulled himself in after the others, Kyros breathed a sigh of relief. "At least we're inside now."

* * *

"How's it look?" Maya asked Stanley as he returned from atop a pile of garbage.

"Well, our timing couldn't be better. It looks like they've just thrown out all of yesterday's excess food. I don't see any SWATbots, but there are a few roboticized workers moving everything. Of course, with this lighting I could have missed something.

"That's good news at least. We'll come back for it later. Right now I think we should head to the scrapyard and see if we can find something to repair the lookout station."

"We might also find something to reveal anything Robotnik might be up to, if we're lucky," Sissera added.

Stanley raised his laser rifle and stepped to the side of their cover to get a better view. "All clear, let's go."

"Stay close," Maya whispered to Marcus as the three followed Stanley. They crouched and darted from compost pile to compost pile in the landfill as they made their way past the food storage and refrigeration facilities. Stanley expertly stalked through the shadows despite the unforgiving terrain, but the others were decidedly less covert. Maya was unable to keep up with him, and the makeshift armor that they had put together for Marcus was noisy.

As they neared the exit of the landfill, Stanley silently threw himself up against an

adjacent mound of assorted machine parts. He urgently signaled for the others to do the same, and cautiously peered around the corner before dancing back. Sissera found herself reaching for her plasma rifle as a shadow approached them.

"Sonic sensors spiking, investigating," they heard a robot dryly comment from out of view. The shadow grew larger, and the sound of heavy footfalls crunching through the semisolid wastes grew louder. A shoulder height robotic mouse stepped into the halo of dim light cast from the overhead street lamps. Its red pupils tracked across its black eyes as it scanned the environment. Its white metallic skin glinted under the light as it stepped forward, and everyone drew aim at its head.

If at all possible, Maya hoped that it wouldn't be necessary to destroy the robot. At one point, it too had been a flesh and blood creature, with feelings and a life of its own. It was probably one of the first victims of the roboticizer, captured when Dr. Robotnik turned traitor and subjected to a fate worse than death. Now, it would be forced into a life of unquestioning servitude. For her, destroying it would be the same as killing someone. Regardless, she knew that they could not afford to be captured, or they would suffer the same fate. She drew her laser pistol and took aim with Stanley and Sissera.

The robot mouse continued forward, drawing close to their position. "Sensors negative, possible false alarm. Scanning infrared to-," it droned before being interrupted by a thunderous crash of collapsing garbage from deeper within the landfill. "Investigating!" it shouted to unseen comrades as it tore down the empty paths between the hills of garbage.

Stanley wasted no time in signaling the others to follow him. He sprinted for the fencing a few meters away, and waited for the others to reach him. "I don't think we can get out through the main exit, we'll have to go over the fence, and quickly."

Fortunately, the fence wasn't barbed like most in Robotropolis, but it would still be a feat for them to make it across undetected. Stanley jumped up and grabbed the fence rungs, and began to steadily pull himself up. Sissera paused and looked to Maya, asking, "Need some help?"

"I think I can manage," she replied, uneasy. She carefully grasped the fence and took a deep breath. Sissera slung her rifle across her back and followed. Marcus energetically leaped onto the fence and scrambled after Stanley, his armor clanking with each movement. Maya nervously looked down, expecting one of the workers to come at any moment to discover them.

On the other side, Stanley jumped from the fence and landed in a patch of mud. Sissera climbed the fence down instead, and helped Marcus safely to the ground. Stanley grew anxious as Maya drug herself to the top of the fence, and began watching for sentries. From the landfill, she could make out the concerned chatter of the worker robots as they continued to search for them. Realizing that she was using borrowed time, she jumped from the fence. Sissera tried to catch her as she fell, but ended up being knocked over from the force.

"You okay?" Sissera asked.

"I'm-I'm fine, let's go," she replied, pulling herself up with Sissera's help. She brushed herself off and panted for a moment before running over to Stanley.

"Let's get out of here before they figure out what happened," he said. As Sissera and Marcus met up with them, he said, "The target construction zone is this way."

The team ran through the shadows and dark night into an alley way. As they burst into the streets on the other side, they paused in awe. Where there had once been abandoned and collapsing factories and processing plants as far as one could see, now stood cleared land and fleets of construction equipment. Several skeletons of early work on buildings stood sporadically across the barren scape.

"That's new...," Stanley muttered as he stared into the vast void.

* * *

"Security seems awfully lax," Tantalus directed to Kyros as he peered out from an alley way.

"I know, and I don't like it. Robotnik might have them guarding something important, or it could be a trap."

"He's usually not that tactical when it comes to dealing with intruders," Seltic added. "Either way, we need to get to the computers undetected. He's making it easy so far."

"You got a map on your computer? It's been a while since I've been in this part of the city."

Seltic thought for a second. "Yeah, but it might be outdated. It hasn't been updated from the old Mobotropolis map." He opened his coat's over sized pocket and pulled his portable computer out. The dim light cast from the computer filled the dark alley as it booted. As Seltic puzzled over the map, Kyros scanned his surroundings.

"Some of this stuff doesn't match up, like I expected, but it looks like the building housing the secondary computer servers is located about four blocks in that direction," he said, pointing off towards the denser areas of the city. "If I remember correctly, most of the computers are stored on the third level of the building, so we should probably head up first."

"I just hope our luck lasts. In this darkness a bot could be on us before we know it," Tantalus added, glancing out into the empty street.

"No time to think about it, we should just head out while we have a chance."

Seltic agreed and closed his computer. Vladimir marched to them from the opposite end of the alley and lowered the heavy laser gun. "There don't appear to be any SWATbots nearby."

"Yeah, same over here. Let's go while we can," Kyros replied, stepping out into the street. Through the darkness, he spied a fire escape hanging from the buildings across the street. "Over there, we can head up that way."

The squad casually walked from their cover to the fire escape, and with a brief check for security robots, began to climb the ladders to the third floor. "Man, these things are old, I hope they hold up," Tantalus said after hearing a low groan as he mounted one of the ladders.

"Don't think about it," Seltic called up to him.

As they all reached the third floor, Kyros gazed out over the railings of the catwalk. The buildings below were mostly dormant, abandoned or inactive for the night. In the distance, a series of taller buildings led to a large, important looking structure. "I'm guessing that's the place, right?" he asked Seltic, pointing at the building.

"Yeah, that's it."

Vladimir peered into the alley below, and added, "Still no sign of security."

"Let's go then," Tantalus said.

Kyros led the team down the catwalk, keeping an eye on the few spots illuminated by street lights. He was beginning to become concerned. Robotnik was never this careless, especially when he did have a large project underway. As they reached the corner of the building, a realization hit Kyros.

"Uh, Seltic, there's no way to the next building from up here. How cruddy is that map?"

Seltic moved up to him and stared down into the gap between the buildings. "Oops. These catwalks aren't on the map, I just assumed that they were linked. I guess Robotnik-" he said before being cut off by something banging into a streetlight overhead. Kyros and Vladimir snapped to action and trained their weapons to the source of the sound, only to discover that a badly corroded girder had fallen from above onto the light.

"Well, I don't like being up here if we don't have to. We're going to be pinned here if we run into trouble," Tantalus commented.

Vladimir glanced down the side of the adjacent building and spotted another ladder. "There," he said, pointing to his discovery.

Again Kyros led the team, and made his way down the ladder network to reach the alley below. As he listened for the others to follow suit, he slipped over to the entrance of the alley. After only hearing two others hit the dirt-covered pavement he looked up the stack of catwalks hanging from the building. Vladimir, who was still at rear of the formation, was still on the second level, intently listening to something.

"Yo, Vlad, what's up?"

The badger inched over to the rail and pointed down the street. "Buzzbomber, incoming from that direction."

Kyros stepped into the street in disbelief. Although his hearing was disrupted by the others milling about, he hadn't heard anything that sounded remotely like one of the machines. From a block away, the washed out image of the robot caught his eye, slowly passing through an intersection. Realizing the foolishness of standing in its path, he tried to scramble back into the alley. In his panic, he stumbled through a pile of cardboard boxes, dropping his laser gun. As he staggered to his feet, he noticed the buzzbomber whirl to face him.

"Shoot it!," he shouted to Vladimir, realizing that there was no time to hide.

Vladimir acknowledged the request by lining up his laser weapon. Moments later the robotic wasp barreled down the street after Kyros, bobbing and weaving to avoid girders running from the buildings. Vladimir squeezed the trigger on the repeating laser, scowling as the weapon began to buck from the heavy cooling machinery within. Blue streams of plasma formed as the intense laser beams tore through the air, stabbing at the buzzbomber as it pursued its prey. As it passed Vladimir, his weapon struck home, shattering its body and sending thousands of fragments of hot metal scything through the air.

Kyros stumbled to a stop as the destroyed robot crashed into the ground next to him, disintegrating as its remains smashed into a building. He took a moment to catch his breath and reassure himself that the buzzbomber was destroyed. "Thanks, I owe you one."

Vladimir shouldered his weapon and rushed down the ladder to join the others. Kyros recovered his laser gun and jogged back to the alley. He glanced over Vladimir and asked, "You okay?"

Thin streams of blood trickled from several cuts through the white stripes of fur on his face, and his sleeve, once blue, was now a moist brown-red in areas. His armor was pockmarked and his shoulder armor sported a deep gash from the exploding buzzbomber. "Shrapnel impacts, I will be fine," he replied, rotating his arm around to check his shoulder.

"If you say so." Kyros had learned that it was best to just accept what Vladimir said. "I think we need to get on the radio and let the others know we just took that bot out. I'm sure it will be missed shortly."

* * *

As would be expected from the cleared zones behind them, Maya's team found the local scrap yard to be exceptionally full. While it meant that they were likely to find something of use, it also meant that armies of worker robots were on duty. Although they would be preoccupied smashing, smelting, and sorting the remains of an untold number of buildings and machines, any one of them could spot the team and alert Robotnik.

Stanley customarily laid atop a pile of scrap, analyzing the movements of the numerous workers. Maya stood behind the pile with Marcus, hopefully out of sight. Sissera had made her way to the side of the scrap heap, to assist Stanley with spotting. Stanley jumped and nearly lost his balance at the sound of a sudden beeping being broadcast from Sissera. He scrambled down the scrap to get out of view, and urgently signaled for her to get out of sight. She anxiously complied, and snatched off her backpack.

From the pack she pulled her radio set, and grabbed the handset to stop its noisy blaring. After waiting for Stanley to affirm that none of the workers had noticed the radio, she asked into the microphone, "What?"

"You guys okay?" she heard Kyros respond.

"We are now. The radio could have got us caught, though. What do you need?"

"Nothing, really. We just needed to give you guys a warning...," he said, his voice crackling as the radio cut out. Sissera sighed and smacked it against her boot in hopes of getting it working again. Apparently Seltic had neglected to service it for the past few years, despite it being known to cut out.

Maya reached out for the handset, to ask Sissera for it. As it cut back in, she demanded, "Warning, what warning? Kyros, we can't afford to mess this up!"

"Maya? Uh... just listen up. While on the way to the computer servers, we ran into a buzzbomber. It noticed us before we could get out of the way, and we had to destroy it. I figure it'll go missing within an hour or so, and others will come looking for it."

She growled and continued, "Alright then. We've only been here for a little under two hours so far, and that's going to cut the mission time seriously short. Where are you now?"

"Near the computer station. We've been taking a bit slower since we ran into that bot."

"Can you make it there and get the job done in time?"

A brief silence ensued on the other end. "Seltic says he can get it done in about twenty minutes once we get there, assuming nothing goes wrong."

"Okay. As soon as you get done, radio us back. We're going to grab as much as we can while we're here. We now know that Robotnik's planning something big... he's cleared several square kilometers of space out here, so please be careful, and be on the lookout for anything odd."

"We will. See you back at the staging point," Kyros replied, cutting the transmission.

Maya solemnly clipped the handset back onto the radio and handed the pack back to Sissera. "I guess you all heard what he said." Stanley and Sissera nodded. "We've got to pick up the pace then. We won't have time to take anything large back, so we probably won't be able to take anything but the food we saw back at the landfill."

"So, are we turning around?" Sissera asked, placing the pack back around her shoulder.

"Not just yet. We should still have a little time, so let's take a look around while we still can."

Stanley stood and added, "Well, I think we've got the advantage out here. There's lots of bots working here, but the noise they're making is helping us a lot. If they didn't catch on to that radio, we should be able to move around with a decent amount of ease."

"What were we looking for again?" Sissera asked Maya.

"Really, just about anything. We're low on a lot of basic supplies, but as far as stuff we can find out here, mostly see if you can find anything that can replace the lookout station. The last one was made from some prefabricated shelter pieces that Robotnik threw out. It would be nice if we could find some more. Given what he demolished, we should be able to find something."

"And Seltic wants us to look for some robot parts while we're here, right?" Marcus added.

"Yeah, but I don't think we'll have time," Maya said. "Enough talk, let's go."

Stanley muttered a confirmation and took off back to his post.

* * *

"So, this is it?" Kyros asked Seltic as the team reached the base of the large building. Lights flickered from several windows on the floors above them, and cameras silently searched the entrances. A defense turret sat at each corner as a grim warning to any who dared to get close.

"Yeah. It's been a while, but like I said, I think the computers and access points are on the third level."

"So, how do we get up there?" Tantalus questioned as he stared at the defenses.

"Actually, now that I think about it, I remember using an underground path the last time we came through here," Kyros replied. "Probably an access tunnel."

"Well, Robotnik has thousands of high speed cable lines running from here to other places in the city, he's bound to have access points for them somewhere around here."

"Sounds like a plan then, any idea of what to look for?"

"The cables would probably run in pipes for the most part, but there would probably be some large access hatches, sort of like a sewer entrance."

"Like this?" Vladimir called to the others from a short distance away.

Seltic looked over to him and studied the hole that he pointed to. He crouched down and shined a light into the cavern, and answered, "Yeah, actually this looks like one. Might be decommissioned though."

"Let me take a look," Kyros said, grabbing Seltic's flashlight. He slid down a ladder and landed in a puddle of viscous liquid. As he shined the light about, he shouted up to Seltic, "Would it be a bunch of blue wires, bound together in clumps?"

"Yeah, probably."

"Then this is it, which way was the complex?" Seltic peered down into the hole and pointed out the direction. "Okay, I got it." Kyros turned the light to face the computer complex, revealing a long, cramped path. "Come on," he shouted to the others.

He embarked down the path as the others joined him in the tunnel. As the tunnel echoed from Vladimir landing behind him, Kyros came across a wall.

"Are we cut off?" Seltic asked as he reached the echidna.

"No, I remember this now. Robotnik just thinks he's being cute by welding a plate over this to keep us out. Did you bring anything to cut through this?"

"Yeah," Seltic replied. He searched through his pockets and pulled out a hand welder. After plugging it into one of his coat's power jacks, he placed it up against the metal plate and said, "You might want to stand back and cover your eyes."

As Kyros backed up, Seltic donned a pair of goggles and thumbed the activator. As the welder bit into the metal, white-hot sparks showered from the opening hole. Vladimir reacted by angling his laser at the sudden source of light. As Seltic finished cutting the path clear, he lowered the weapon with a grunt.

Kyros kicked the damaged plate several times to dislodge it, and it banged loudly as it fell into the room at the other side. He threw himself into the room, drawing his weapon to deal with anything that might be waiting. After assuring himself that it was clear, he beckoned the others to follow, and grabbed hold of a nearby ladder leading upwards.

The squad climbed the ladder network several stories, squeezing by pipes, dangling cables of various sorts, and other various protrusions. As Kyros reached a panel with a distinctive number three painted on it, he searched for a hatch or other means of entry. Recalling his previous excursion into the building, he located a dimly glowing red button and pressed it. Below it, another flickered green, and the previous panel swung open, showering the dark shaft in light.

He glanced inside, studying the shadows and shapes in the room for movement. With no robots in sight, he squeezed his way through the small opening. Memories of his last trip to the building began to flood back to him as he looked around the room. Racks of computer components lined the walls, bound together by webs of cables. His breath condensed before his eyes as he felt the first rush of cooled air specially controlled to keep the computers at safe temperatures. Behind him, Seltic stumbled through the open hole.

"Well, we're here. I hope this won't take too long," the tenrec said as he began to analyze the walls of computers.

As he set to work, Kyros helped Tantalus and Vladimir through the opening. The two instantly took up positions to defend themselves should it become necessary.

Kyros stepped over to Seltic and asked, "How's it look?"

"I don't know for sure yet, but it's going to take me a couple of minutes for my computer to brute-force the security codes," he replied, studying his personal computer.

Tantalus let out a gasp followed by a brief "Uh-oh..."

"What?" Kyros asked, snapping his attention to the squirrel.

He pointed up to a security camera in the corner of the room, panning across the room. Kyros aimed his rifle and squeezed the trigger. The camera exploded into shards of plastic and metal, leaving behind twisted and sparking remains.

"Not good, we're going to have company. Soon," he said as he pulled his radio handset out. He turned the tuner to get a good signal, and called the other team.

After a short silence, he heard Sissera respond, "What now? You're going to get us killed out here!"

"Sorry, but I think we're going to have big problems soon. The moment Seltic's done here, we're out. I just had to blast a camera here, and I know that won't go unnoticed. You guys might want to start heading back as soon as possible."

He could hear Maya speaking angrily during the pause that followed. "Alright, we're heading back," she said before cutting off the communicator.

Seltic triumphantly tossed his hand into the air. "Robotnik is still using one of the codes we've broken before, I'm downloading the GPS log now." He stared intently at his computer for a few more seconds before snatching the connectors running to the series of computers. "I've got the logs, let's get out of here."

Kyros agreed and opened the only door in the room, revealing a short hallway terminated by a stairwell. Everyone followed without a word, trailing him as he stormed down the stairs, gun ready. At the base of the stairs, they burst into a spacious entry room. From outside, the flowing shadows of approaching SWATbots were apparent through the windows and glass door.

He knew that getting out was going to be a tough fight, and said to the others, "Get ready, here they come!"

* * *

"Anyone coming?" Maya directed to Stanley as she stooped down to process the boxes of discarded food.

"No, not that I see. It looks like everything cleared out some time ago," he replied from his temporary post.

"Great, come over here and help us then. We're leaving so we can take a little risk."

Stanley stood from his prone position and jogged down to the others, who were busy picking through the supplies that they had witnessed being thrown out earlier. At Maya's direction, he moved over to an unopened box and began to rummage through its contents, looking for anything that was edible and could be easily taken with them. He frowned as he sifted through the box, finding only packets of salt and sugar that had gotten wet somehow with something other than water. "Nothing here," he said.

"I've found a few cases of bread over here," Sissera called to the others. "It still looks good."

"Good, bring it over here," Maya said to her as she continued to search the boxes and containers. She smiled at her next discovery among the countless worthless cartons. "We're in good shape now, I've found some field kits here. They've got some basic supplies like soap, salt, and medical supplies in them, so let's grab as many as we can."

"Way ahead of you," Stanley said. He reached around to his backpack and uncoupled a collapsed sled. With a flick of his wrist, it unfolded and snapped into shape. He flipped a switch on its handle causing it to rise a short distance with a constant low hum. "This gravsled should be able to carry a good bit, and the battery is good for an hour or so."

Maya lifted several of the cartons and placed them on the sled, followed by Stanley tossing on an armful more. Sissera lugged her share onto the sled and returned to fetch more. As the three worked to load the supplies, they heard Marcus shout something incomprehensible to them. Concerned, Maya and Sissera rushed in his general direction.

"I found something!" he exclaimed as they came into view, holding up a carton. The two breathed a sigh of relief and approached him.

"What is it?" Maya asked.

"I think it's ice cream!"

She stared blankly for a moment. None of them had even seen ice cream in years, since you couldn't exactly go out and buy it anymore. The thought of it brought back memories of its sweet taste and smooth texture, and she felt her mouth beginning to water. "Stanley, bring the sled over here!"

As he crested the intervening hill of the landfill, she hurried off with Marcus to find the rest of the stock.

* * *

"Incoming to the right!" Tantalus shouted to his comrades at the sight of more machines approaching. He raised his laser gun and snapped off several shots to deter them for a moment.

"Down here!" Kyros called to the others, pointing at a drainage ditch. He tossed a grenade into the ditch to clear it of any potential surprises, and led the others by jumping in after the explosion. They landed with a cascade of splashes into residual water, and launched themselves down the predefined path.

Ahead, he spotted several SWATbots hopping into the ditch to intercept them, each with its arm raised and laser searching for targets. He found himself too slow to react as blue beams from Vladimir's repeater raked across their bodies. The robots fell with a spasm, fires forming in their incinerated bodies. Their dome-like heads turned to watch the team as they barreled by, still struggling to stop them. As several deep red laser beams zipped past his head from behind, Kyros began to reconsider his tactics.

"I've got them," Seltic said as he hefted his plasma rifle up. After a momentary buildup of energy, the weapon unleashed a blast of violet superheated plasma. Although his shot struck short, the immense explosion of heat engulfed the pursuing robots, obliterating them in an instant.

"This way!" Kyros commanded as he hurled himself into a junction. At the end of the distant corridor, the salvation of a sewer entrance caught his eye. "Almost there guys!"

Moments later his sprint was halted by a roboticized wolf leaping into the ditch on top of him. "You will answer to Lord Robotnik for your actions!" it shouted down to him. With its mechanical strength, it snatched him up and slammed him into the adjacent wall. He cringed as it raised its other arm, splaying its claws.

He felt himself slump to the ground and its grip falter as the repeating laser opened fire. Its arm was sheared off and its body was hurled down the ditch, spraying metal shrapnel and embers. He scrambled to recover his gun and unload the remaining shots in his clip. The robot wolf moaned weakly and convulsed for a moment before going limp. Kyros whirled about to assess the others, and froze as he glimpsed a spy-eye leading another roboticized creature towards them from above.

He shouted for the others too late, and the robotic fox hurled itself into the group. As it landed on Seltic, Vladimir tried to draw his aim to it, but didn't have time to react. The robot grabbed Seltic and threw him at Tantalus, then turned its attention to the badger. Vladimir forewent the idea of shooting it at such close range and swung his huge weapon at it. The agile fox robot dodged the clumsy blow and smashed it from his hands. Weighed down by the heavy energy pack, he failed to avoid a follow up blow that knocked him from his feet.

With unnatural strength it ripped the laser's power system from his body and crushed it over its knee. Vladimir struggled to defend himself from several blows before Kyros finally managed to bring his gun to bear. The fox staggered as the laser beams impacted its body from behind, sending molten flecks of armor spraying into the air. Enraged, it inverted its facing and raised its arm to the echidna.

An integrated laser weapon rose from its forearm, and the machine poised itself to deliver a laser blast to his head. Its shot went wild as Vladimir shattered his damaged laser against its arm, sending it sprawling into the concrete wall lining the ditch. After recovering, it turned and glared at him, lightning playing across its crushed arm. With blinding speed, it thrust its foot squarely into his chest.

An audible crunch filled the ditch as its heel impacted his armor, hurling him down the ditch and sending splinters of his armor flying. An instant later another volley of red laser beams lanced out from Kyros' and Tantalus' guns, shattering and penetrating its body. It staggered towards them, despite its frozen joints and exposed internals. "Kill... kill...," it hissed as it reached out at them with its remaining laser.

Seltic answered its feeble attempt to fire at them by raising his own weapon. The distinctive hum of the plasma rifle charging was followed by another bright burst of glowing energy leaping from its barrel. The incandescent cloud of energy eclipsed the fox for an instant before detonating in an incredible explosion. Debris from its annihilated body pelted the group as they dove for cover. As the dust began to clear, they scrambled down the ditch to the fallen Vladimir.

He pulled himself up and tore his mutilated chest plate off. His blue suit was stained with spots of blood leaking from cuts formed by his shattering armor. He coughed violently and growled at the growing pain in his sides and chest.

"Vlad, are you okay?" Tantalus asked, kneeling beside him.

Vladimir took a moment to catch his breath and replied, "Nothing too serious..."

* * *

"Where are the others? They should have been here by now," Maya thought out loud as she paced behind the two hovercraft.

Sissera hopped out from one of the ships and took a step towards Robotropolis. "I see some commotion down there, it looks like they've made it outside. There's a pretty heavy firefight from the looks of it."

Maya raced to her position and stared down at the forming light show. "Get the other ship ready, we're heading down to meet them," she grimly told Sissera.

* * *

The sight of the two hovercraft bursting from the woods ahead filled Kyros with hope. Bolts of violet energy from anti-vehicle cannons blazed past them as they sprinted to meet the ships, sending mountains of dirt into the air where they impacted. As the ships closed in, increasing amounts of fire diverted from them to the approaching vehicles. Small shots from SWATbots and roboticized soldiers spattered harmlessly against their armor, but a hit from one of the fixed defenses would be another story.

A blast from the defense turrets landed near one of the hovercraft, with the ensuing explosion throwing it off course. Kyros pointed to the closest ship and shouted to Tantalus, "You and Vladimir take that one, Seltic and I will wait for the other." Tantalus, who was busy helping the wounded Vladimir escape, nodded and adjusted his route towards it.

Kyros glanced over to Seltic and shouted over the battlefield noise, "Let's go! No time to waste!" Seltic eagerly agreed and chased after Kyros as he ran all-out for the other ship. Wild shots from their pursuers exploded against vegetation and the ground, and Kyros found himself thankful that the robots were more intent on capturing than killing them. The two clambered into the open hatch of the ship as they finally reached it and slammed it shut behind them, moments before dozens of particle beam and laser impacts rattled the hull of the ship.

Maya anxiously embraced both of them and helped them to a seat. "Are you both alright?" she inquired.

"Vladimir's hurt a bit, but we're fine," Kyros calmly replied.

Seltic took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. "Yeah... mission accomplished," he stammered as he handed his computer to her.


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

_The Great Forest of the Kingdom of Acorn_

_3:43 AM_

Maya squinted through the dim red lighting that filled the hovercraft interior to examine Seltic's computer for the dozenth time, her eyes darting from image to image. Frustrated, she handed it back to him and said, "I still can't make much out of this, how do you know Robotnik hasn't found Armadi?"

He rubbed his face in exhaustion and took the computer. "Like I said, this list shows every picture taken by his main GPS satellites over the past three days. For the most part, they're taken at thirty minute intervals, which makes quite a few pictures to sort through, but after looking at the past day and a half, I'm pretty sure he didn't spot us."

"Yes, I know that, but how can you be so sure?"

"Well, for starters, the satellites appear to take samples from random places unless told to do otherwise. Given that, there was only a single picture taken of the forest during the fire, and it had just started at that point. Unless he examined that one specific picture, at that one specific spot, he'd probably never know it even happened."

She raised her hand to her chin and looked over the image, replying, "I think I understand now."

"An awful lot of work just to find out he was completely oblivious," Kyros said to the two from the seats across the passenger compartment.

"We couldn't afford to just sit around and hope that he didn't notice," Maya snapped.

"She's right, I think we did learn something else important," Seltic added.

Maya perked up and glanced over to him. She asked in a distinctive worried tone, "What exactly do you mean?"

"I'm not sure what to make of it, but throughout the last half of yesterday, the satellites were snapping pictures of an area close to Armadi. Clearly, Robotnik thought something important was there."

"What do you think it could be?" Kyros asked.

"At first I wasn't sure, but while it's close to the settlement, it's on the other side of the mountains. I find it unlikely that he was looking for us there. I actually think Robotnik's out there personally snooping around."

"You mean he wasn't even in Robotropolis?" Maya added.

"I don't think so. Usually he or Snively blurt out some dramatic speech about how he's going to catch us and roboticize us, if he finds out we're in the city. Even after being discovered, he never uttered a peep. That, and in the radio chatter across the city, I noticed that the computers were directing security by themselves."

"What could he have been looking for then?"

"He's so unpredictable at times that I couldn't even begin to guess with any certainty, but with a new project of some sort obviously going on, it's probably something to do with it."

"I think we should check it out, it's not too far from here, is it?"

"About eighty kilometers, but it'll take a while to get there through the mountains and forest."

She paused for a moment before standing and walking off toward the cockpit. "We're taking a detour."

* * *

"Sir, it's freezing out here! Why don't we just send in the robots and go home?" Snively exclaimed to his rotund uncle. 

Robotnik frowned and cut his eyes to him. "Because, Snively, today is a special day. Can't you just smell it in the air?"

Snively grimaced and ducked back down into the transport with a grunt. Robotnik followed shortly, and took a seat at the lone computer console in the compartment.

"All I smell is you, Julian...," Snively muttered as he found a seat away from Robotnik.

"What was that Snively?" the doctor growled, baring his teeth and scowling.

Snively jumped from his seat and grabbed at his shirt collar. "Oh, I uh...," he stammered.

"Save it. I'm in too much of a good mood to be distracted right now. After all, once we're done here we can begin the real work!" He studied the computer screen before him and grinned widely. "And it looks like the excavation and security teams are nearing their targets."

"Well, maybe we'll be out of here by sunup then," Snively whispered to himself.

Robotnik sneered at his nephew before standing. After a moment of glaring at his subordinate, the massive man strolled toward the cockpit with a equally large grin on his face. He stopped at the end of the hallway and bellowed, "Driver! Bring us to a stop here!"

Moments later the sound of the engines slowing was followed by a lurch as the ship prepared to set itself down on the ground. Robotnik clasped his hands together and chuckled. "Ah, yes. So it begins!" he thought aloud. "Computer, open a link with the excavation teams."

After a signal to proceed, he spoke, "This is Dr. Robotnik, what is your status?"

Through the static choked response, he heard, "My lord, we are prepared to begin. However, there are complications that require your input."

He puzzled and asked, "What is it!?"

"We are currently three hundred meters from our target areas, and already we have spotted several residents. It is probable that they will resist, and radio communication is likely to fail once we enter the mountain."

"Inhabitants? Odd how we missed them for so long, considering how close we are to Robotropolis," Snively said.

"Yes. Oh well, the more slaves the better!" he replied. "Security teams, detain anyone you can, but let no one stand in your way. Terminate any who resist."

"Understood, my lord."

* * *

The piercing red glow of the eyes of the captain's team blazed through the predawn darkness, faint moonlight glistening across its glossy black metallic skin. The roboticized cat led its followers down from their observation point toward their destination at the mouth of the caves. The infrared signatures of several lifeforms ahead filled their vision, prompting the captain to halt their progress.

"Lord Robotnik wants as many alive as possible, arm your weapons in case of resistance. Aim for extremities to minimize traumatic injury, but do not hesitate to kill any who pose too much of a threat," it signaled the others through its integrated radio. The others replied in turn, signaling their understanding.

With the team prepared, it continued onward, breaking into a jog and ultimately a run. The team followed suit, charging after their commander as they barreled down the slope and toward the unsuspecting creatures below. As the commander had anticipated, they were caught completely by surprise.

"Halt and surrender yourselves to lord Robotnik!" it shouted to the bewildered inhabitants. As the robot drew closer, their forms became more clear. Three bats scrambled over themselves from the confusion, and froze in place as they caught glimpse of the approaching robotic soldiers.

"If you submit yourselves to Dr. Robotnik, you will live under his rule. If you attempt to defend yourselves, or attempt to escape, you will be executed," the roboticized cat continued.

The bats remained silent, trembling in fear. The captain stepped forward and picked one up by her shirt and examined her. She and the others were clearly in poor health and condition, with ragged clothing and apparent malnutrition. The cat opened a radio link with Robotnik and spoke aloud, "My lord, we have detained three bats. They are in poor physical condition, but should be suitable for robiticization."

"Excellent, I am sending a team of SWATbots to hold them, continue into the mountain and clear it out. I can't have anyone getting in my way," he replied.

Satisfied, the robot set her back down and looked to one of her accomplices. As he matched gaze with the machine, he panicked and lost his composure. He turned and bolted away from the gathering towards the opening of the cave. The captain growled and shouted to one of its team members, "Watch these two, the rest of you, follow me!" It then looked to the prisoners and continued, "If you move, you will be killed."

With their presence soon to be known to anyone else in the cave, the nine free roboticized soldiers dropped into a sprint after the runaway. After a moment, the leader raised its arm and brandished an integrated particle beam projector. As the bat came back into view, it lined its weapon up and snapped off several shots. The crack of the particle beams ripping through the air were followed by a shocked shriek as they chewed through his body. He was thrown from his feet by the force of the impacts, and landed in a crumpled heap a short distance away.

The robots slowed to a stop as they approached their victim, and cautiously approached his motionless body. The captain glanced over him and noted the massive bloody crater marring the bat's body. Their victim let out a pained sigh and fell limp where he laid, prompting the commander to signal the others, "He will not live, leave him and follow me into the caves."

* * *

Scores of heat signatures flooded the team's vision as they stormed down the tunnel into the mountain. Already the residents were aware of their impending doom, and several of the prior heat sources flared as makeshift laser weapons were discharged. Flashes of light washed out the machines' artificial night vision as the shafts of focused light drilled through the tunnel. The defenders were far outclassed by their attackers, and their untrained shots rarely hit home. The few laser beams that struck the invading robots were far too weak to cause substantial damage, only leaving charred blemishes or chipped paint.

In response the captain directed its team to return fire, preferring limbs and weapons as targets. Five precision energy beam shots stabbed back into the tunnel, felling or disarming the brave but foolish defenders. The commander quickly analyzed the wounds inflicted as they continued into the tunnel network. Two bats laid sprawled out with varying injuries to their bodies, with a third dying from devastating wounds to his vitals lying at the feet of a fourth disarmed but unwounded bat.

The captain stormed up to the cowering boy and pinned him against the wall with its clawed hands. "Are there others? Tell me their locations and you will not be harmed."

He stammered in response and choked on his words before pointing with a trembling finger indirectly down the tunnel path. The captain directed a subordinate to watch the survivors as it continued the trek down into the mountain. As they came across a branching path, it commanded its followers, "Split up and take each path. Search each as well as possible." It pointed to the open tunnel ahead and continued, "I will take this path alone. Proceed."

As the others split up as commanded, the captain took a moment to scan the environment as much as possible. Unsurprisingly, the rock interfered a great deal with most sensors, and only a few scattered heat sources were still apparent. With the almost nonexistent light boosted enough to see, it marched along the path to the only visible exit. Sounds of weapon fire echoed from behind as the others engaged hostile defenders.

Ahead, the captain could hear hurried footsteps and movements as someone prepared to defend themselves. The blurred heat pattern from the room transformed into the image of a young adult bat as the captain entered the room. She backed away from the robot and braced herself against the far wall. As she drew a weapon, she managed to choke out, "What do you want with us? P-Please, just leave us alone."

The roboticizer's mental reprogramming of the captain failed to inhibit a cocky smile as it examined her weapon. Her ancient solid-slug weapon posed absolutely no threat to its armored skin. The robot lowered its guard and repeated its standard response, "Submit yourself to Dr. Robotnik. If you lower your weapon you will live."

She crouched in response and lined the pistol up with its head. With a trembling hand she squeezed the trigger, looking away and closing her eyes as the mechanics within the gun began to click. The captain ignored her display and took a step towards the terrified woman. A moment later the weapon discharged.

The bullet miraculously hit its target, crashing into the captain's head. The robot reeled backwards in surprise as the armor penetrating shell tore into its body, followed by a secondary explosion as the tip of the round detonated. Damaged badly, the robot stumbled backwards, clutching at its shattered eye where the bullet entered its head.

The bat exploited the lull and pulled the trigger a second time. As the old mechanisms clicked again, the captain responded by throwing itself prone to avoid the round. The shot sailed over its shoulder, ricocheting off of the walls of the cave. Startled by the bullet impacting and detonating in the ground in front of her, the bat lost her concentration and cowered against the wall.

Using the moment, the captain fired its laser at her. The beam lanced out and blasted the gun from her hand, causing her to reel back. As she cradled her wounded hand, the robot leaped up and grabbed her by the arm. It snarled at her as it drew her close, and slammed her against the rigid wall. She yelped as she crashed into the wall and was jerked free. With its free hand, the captain formed a fist and landed a blow squarely into her chest.

She stumbled backwards from the impact, gasping for breath. The captain again sneered with satisfaction as she slumped to the ground. With a moment to think freely, the captain slowly scanned the room across several light spectra to complete its mission. The robot glanced at the fallen bat once more and opened a communication link with Robotnik.

Through the badly degraded signal and static, Robotnik impatiently demanded, "What do you want!?"

"My lord, we have apprehended several refugees. The cave appears to be mostly cleared at this point. As you suspected, my sensors have already detected an inordinate amount of radiation."

"...Excellent, bring in the other team to begin excavation immediately. A SWATbot team will be there momentarily to take the survivors in for roboticization."

* * *

"I just don't understand it, really," Seltic addressed everyone in the cafeteria after he swallowed another spoonful of ice cream. "It looked like Robotnik had been gone for hours before we got there, and I'm still not sure why he even came."

"Do you think he really was looking for us out there?" Stanley asked as he scooped up some ice cream.

"Well, he probably would have come personally if that was his intention, but overall I don't think so. It looked like there had been some fighting in the caves, but more puzzling is the mining. It seemed that he just took a few tons of rock and left in a hurry."

"Any idea at all what he was looking for? Or why he was in such a hurry?" Maya asked as she handed a bowl of ice cream to Marcus.

"I guess it was important to whatever he's plotting, and he's known to get in a hurry. But as for what he was looking for, I'm really not sure. Normally I'd say he was digging for oil or something, but in the mountains, he'd have to have been looking for a solid ore of some sort. It could have been iron or titanium perhaps, but with such a small amount taken, even that's unlikely."

"Well, I don't like this. We know Robotnik's up to something big, and it just keeps getting stranger," Kyros added.

"We'll figure it out eventually," Sissera offered, "but right now we've got a ton of ice cream to eat, and I don't intend to let Robotnik spoil it!"


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

_Armadi_

_7:57 AM_

The sound of someone struggling with the door to the laundry room prompted Maya to jump from her spot in front of the warming stove. She stepped towards the aging wooden door and turned the knob with her free hand.

"Oh, thanks. Didn't realize that anyone was over here," she heard Sissera say as the door creaked open. Maya turned back to her duties as the tenrec stepped inside, dragging a bag of soiled clothing inside.

"Yeah, it's breakfast time, so I figured that I'd fix everyone something to eat this morning after yesterday."

"That sounds good, what is it?" Sissera asked as she began pulling clothes from the bag and placing them into an empty washing machine.

Maya pulled a bottle of cooking oil from an overhead cabinet and placed it on the counter. "The usual, eggs, toast, and things like that," she said as she opened the bottle and looked over to her companion. "Oh my," she continued when she spotted the blood-stained bandages among the other clothes.

"Vladimir," Sissera answered without being asked.

"Oh, yes. How is he?"

"He's doing better, and he'll be fine. He bruised a few ribs, and he's got some pretty bad cuts from shrapnel, but he's not hurt too badly."

"That's good to hear," Maya said as she poured some oil into a pan on the stove. "When will he be back on his feet?"

"He's pretty tough, and refused to stay bed ridden, so he's already getting around alright. I wouldn't recommend sending him out anytime soon though. Not for a few days at least, and he probably won't be completely better for a few months."

"I figured that when I saw him. He'll be missed tonight then, but I guess even he needs time to recover after something like that."

Sissera paused from loading the machine and asked, "Tonight? Are we heading out again?"

"Yeah, I hate to set out again so soon, but I have this feeling that we don't have much time to waste. Robotnik gets craftier every time he hatches a new plot."

Sissera sighed and closed the lid on the washer. "I know, I just hope that everyone is rested up enough. Are you sending everyone again?"

Maya cracked an egg and emptied it into the pan. "No, actually. It doesn't sound like Vladimir is in any shape to go, so someone's got to stay with him. I need you and Seltic to go, and the other boys unless something else comes up, so I guess Marcus and I will stay behind."

"Alright then, when are we leaving?"

"After lunch, everything willing. Hopefully Robotnik won't be expecting you back so soon."

* * *

"I should have known that Maya was sending us off again when she cooked so much for breakfast," Kyros announced to the others as he hopped down from the hovercraft's access hatch.

"I'm still exhausted from last time, I don't think I've gotten more than three hours of sleep," Tantalus added.

"I feel you," Seltic said, slinging his pack around his shoulders.

"Tired or not, we've got a job to do, and the sooner we start the sooner we get done," Stanley chimed in.

Sissera rubbed her eyes and yawned. "You never get tired, but you're right. I think we should just get it over with. What exactly are we here for this time?"

Kyros stared at her blankly for a moment before answering, "What else? Since we know Robotnik has certainly hatched a new scheme, but don't know what it is yet, we're just supposed to conduct a little surveillance. Maya stressed safety, I'm guessing because of what happened to Vlad, but with the time she's given us we'll have to take some risks."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Seltic asked.

"Well, for one we're expected to avoid confrontation at all costs. You know, the usual. However, she wanted us to break into no more than two groups, but we don't have time for that. Instead, we're all going to branch off and hit each of the target zones."

"What are the targets exactly?" Stanley butted in.

"I was getting to that. Anyway, Seltic, you and Sissera are going to head off to the two security computer hubs in the new construction zone. Maya wants you to try and steal as much security footage as possible, which should tell us a lot if Robotnik still has it lying around.

"Stanley, you're going to head off to the construction zone and snoop around in general. Don't take too many risks, but if you can get into one of the buildings or close to a build site, don't hesitate.

"Tantalus and I are going to spy around in some of the storage facilities. If we can't get the security footage, or figure out what's going on by looking at the buildings themselves, we might be able to guess by looking at the materials that are being used."

"Sounds good," the squirrel said.

"Any questions before we head for Robotropolis? Everyone know where their target location is?"

The team fell silent, and after a few nods, Kyros continued, "Alright then, let's go. And remember, since we're splitting up, be extra careful. We absolutely cannot afford to blow this again. I don't want to be back here this time tomorrow."

* * *

The sight of the immense forms of the storage structures ahead sent a sobering chill down Tantalus' spine. Flowing shapes of scores of worker robots clouded the vast windows lining the facilities, and swarms of buzzbombers, spy-eyes and utility aircraft darkened the skies above. He frowned at the unpleasant concoction of smells filling the air, and crept from an alleyway to get a better view. An uneasy feeling washed over him as he studied the dozen entry ways into the nearest building. The lack of armies of SWATbots and security robots was unusual in the extreme.

Regardless, he took a deep breath and steadied himself. He felt himself growing nervous without Kyros making the decisions and barking orders, and his legs felt weak as he shuffled towards an adjacent ladder. With extreme attention paid to the sounds around him, he scaled the ladder, pausing after each clang of his boots against the metal.

As he mounted the third level of the scaffolding, he sighed in relief and took note of an approaching cargo truck. He slid over to the edge of the catwalk and poised himself to leap down to his target as it passed by. The truck ground by, devoid of any defenses to halt the squirrel. As the house-sized machine passed under him, he hesitated momentarily before dropping onto the roof.

His heart raced as his equipment banged onto the metal plating. He dropped flat and crawled forward, hoping to avoid the prying eyes of any overhead spy drones or buzzbombers. The lack of any cover or hatches to exploit sent another feeling of panic across him, and he desperately scrambled towards the break between the two enormous cargo containers. As he reached the break, he threw himself between the containers and landed on the containers' couple. He shut his eyes for a moment to calm himself.

The sounds of workers checking the containers trickled into the crevice, convincing him to flatten himself against one of the containers and pray that none of the machines checked too closely. The already dark couple point grew pitch black as the truck hefted itself through the cavernous doors leading to the storage facility.

Tantalus waited for the machine to grind to a halt before peering out from the opening. The lack of ground activity outside of the garage spoke nothing of the armies of workers directing the flow of materials into and out of the building. Scores of roboticized creatures filled the building, with dozens of large robots loading and unloading the trucks, and others supervising. In the center of the floor, he spotted two combat specialized robots. If either discovered him, he would have no hope of making it out alive. He pulled a hand held camera from his pocket and aimed it at the nearest group of workers. At the sight of interesting boxes or materials he snapped off a handful of shots.

He froze as the target workers halted and scanned the area, angling their ears around in search of the nearly silent camera's shutter clicking. He wasn't out of the woods yet.

* * *

Seltic groaned as an unknown condensing liquid overhead dripped onto him. He squinted upwards at the source, shielding his eyes from any further drops. Sickly yellow light filtered between the skyscrapers around him, sporadically highlighting the cluttered alley before him. He loathed the idea of returning to the same area he had been only a day earlier. Maya could have easily asked them to gather this data while they were here before, but given the circumstances he passed the blame to himself and Kyros.

He paused at an intersection to gather his bearings and ran the plan through his head once more. Thankfully he didn't have to enter the same computer building, as even Robotnik would have the sense to increase security for a few days after such a gravid breach. His destination was several blocks away, where the computer system archived security surveillance recordings for a few months before they were deleted.

With his route determined, he turned at the intersection and sloshed through the standing water down the alley. Given the buzzbomber incident yesterday, walking so boldly through the city was against his better judgment, but he was growing indifferent with fatigue.

The winding path between the abandoned buildings flashed vaguely through his mind as he rounded each corner, and his sour mood rose at the unexpectedly early sight of the security substation. The building stood apart from its surroundings, covered with untold hundreds of fiber optic cables and landlines. Seltic skipped over to the near corner of the building and made a quick glance around the structure to spot any defenses or robots.

"Amazing," he whispered to himself as he noted no interloping sentries.

He stretched and pulled the computer from his coat pocket, searching the surface of the building for a potential site to interface with the system. A network hub used commonly throughout the city caught his eye as he scanned the building. With renewed enthusiasm he hurried to the hub and connected his computer to a free port. With a little luck, Robotnik would still be using outdated security schemes on this network and he would be able to access the files.

The computer responded to his commands as he ran through the routine procedure of analyzing the network, and finished with an ominous security warning. Seltic's mood sank again as he read the message and realized that retrieving the data wouldn't be as easy as he had hoped. He groaned and slumped onto a nearby crate as he read the computer's estimated time before it could determine the security keys. It wouldn't be the first time he had to wait idly for an hour for something to happen, so he decided to get some sleep while it churned away.

He was too tired to think much about being discovered for the moment.

* * *

Stanley stood in awe at the skeletal forms of the dozens of skyscrapers lining the horizon and filling the city blocks before him. Giant cranes and construction vehicles filled the voids between the structures, and armies of robotic workers milled around their various levels. He ducked into the shadows as a roboticized skunk hefted an iron girder by, flattening himself against a building until it passed by.

He peeked around the corner and realized that any close inspection of the buildings would be impossible, with the number of robots surrounding them. Another band of robots appeared from the construction zone and headed for his alley hiding spot, provoking him to dart off down the street towards the nearest intersection.

He silently dove around the corner into cover and waited for the approaching robots to pass by. While he crouched in the shadows, he spied an open window to an abandoned office complex. He stood and carefully slid the window completely open and pulled himself inside. The rotten wood floor creaked under his weight, and he threw himself into the corner of the room where no one would be able to see him from outside. After waiting a moment to ensure that nothing had heard his noisy entry he began tiptoeing towards a doorway opposite him.

After tortuously trying to keep the creaking to a minimum, he was glad to find a stair case in the adjacent room. With no windows nearby to potentially reveal him to the security forces, he began meticulously scaling the staircase, taking care to check each ancient wooden step for stability.

Each floor conveniently had a lobby area next to the stairwell, and he took the opportunity to snap a few pictures of the closest construction site with his camera. He puzzled over the structure of the buildings, each appearing to be intentionally left as skeletal templates. None of the floors of the buildings were in place, and most even had one or more walls missing. The roofs of the buildings also seemed to be completely placed, yet failed to cover the entire building. Despite this, each appeared to be in an advanced stage of construction, with robots placing communication, power, and gas lines throughout the masses of steel and iron.

Satisfied with his progress so far, Stanley mounted the stairs again and proceeded to the roof. He had convinced himself that there were no robots in the building, and carelessly thundered up the final flight to the roof. Instead of finding soot-choked sunlight behind the exit door, he was met with the perplexed gaze of a roboticized female possum.

He felt his stomach drop as the robot's face faded from shock to anger. Before it could attack, he jumped down the stairs, hoping against odds that the damaged wood would hold under the stress. "Halt intruder, and prepare to be roboticized!" the possum shouted after him.

Stanley rolled into the room at the base of the flight of stairs, angling himself to face the robot as it pursued him. He hesitated for a moment as he waited for it to emerge from the stairs, and pulled a hand held EMP emitter from his belt. The machine leaped down the stairs, and smashed into the landing before the final steps down to Stanley's level.

It let out a surprised gasp as its weight partially collapsed the stairs around it. In its moment of surprise, Stanley pointed the device and thumbed an activator. After a moment of charging, the room was filled with an instantaneous flash of light, followed by the robot reeling. Its eyes crossed and its joints locked up as the energy fried and fused electrical circuits, and after an ultimate pained sigh it fell into the room.

Stanley cautiously approached the fallen machine and wiped his forehead. After calming himself for a few seconds, he pulled his headset's microphone down and prepared to announce his ordeal to the others.

* * *

"What is that infernal alarm blaring for, Snively!?" Robotnik bellowed to his nephew from his throne.

Snively glared at his computer console and grit his teeth. "Well, sir, it appears that one of the robots in the construction zone has gone missing. It's no longer responding to communication, and can't be located."

Robotnik scowled and continued, "So? Why would I care what happens to one of those blasted machines?

"Sir, it doesn't appear to be an accident. If I had to guess, there are intruders in the area."

"I don't have time to deal with them right now, just ignore it."

Snively turned and looked to the giant man, and replied, "But sir! They might interfere with the project!"

"Even they aren't foolish enough to try anything in the vicinity of thousands of potential death sentences, Snively. The robots will deal with them if there really are any out there."

"Well, apparently the robots can't deal with them," Snively muttered.

"Are you questioning me, Snively?"

Snively perked up and offered, "Oh, no sir! I was just saying that I'd tell the robots to handle it!" He held down a button on his computer console and said, "Attention, all robots be prepared to deal with possible intruders. Do not halt work to investigate."

Robotnik coldly looked away towards his computer terminal, and said, "Fine, that'll do."

* * *

Sissera jumped at the feeling of the vibration of her comm-unit, signaling a broadcast from another team member. She pulled her headset's microphone down and flipped the unit's power switch. "Who broke radio silence?" the impatient voice of Kyros demanded over the radio.

"Me," the apparent voice of Stanley replied. "I just wanted to let you guys know that I had a little run in with one of the locals."

Kyros let out an irritated breath. "So I suppose the big Dr. knows we're here. Are you safe now?"

"Yeah, I used one of the EMP thingies Seltic whipped up for us. I don't think any of the other robots know that I took this one down."

"Huh?" Seltic groggily said over the net after hearing his name.

"Stanley just waxed a bot. We're probably going to have trouble sooner or later, so everyone be on the lookout. Is everyone in their positions? Anyone else having problems?"

"I'm fine," Seltic added.

"I think things are okay here now," Stanley said.

"Great, how's it going Tantalus?"

A silence over the net was followed by a nervous, "Fine... I'm in the facility now."

"Sissera?"

"I'm on the way, the path is a little different than on the maps," she said into her microphone.

"Good, I'm in position too. Everyone be on your toes, and don't take any unnecessary risks. Remember that unless said otherwise we're all going to meet back by the hovercraft in four hours. Now, I'm cutting the radio. Keep it that way unless there's an emergency, we can't risk Robotnik tracing the signal." The transmission faded with a static pop, and she folded her microphone away.

She was still over a dozen blocks away from the security depot, and the dismal sea of gray buildings surrounding her struck an intense uninviting feeling. The faint howl of wind sounded down the abandoned street, and an odd window spilled pale light. She gathered the courage to begin down the street again, warily inching her way towards an alley a block away.

Thunder cracked overhead, signaling the approach of another of an endless stream of storms. She tensed as rain began to mist the street, and noisily dropped her equipment box at the sound of another intense explosion of thunder. She hunkered down and waited for the sounds of approaching robots. The rain began to pick up, drowning out the background silence.

She grabbed her things and clambered for the alley under the protection of the racket the rain was beginning to make against the metal junk strewn about the road. As she rounded the corner of the alley, her body stiffened. Just an arm's reach away stood the figure of a SWATbot. Without wasting a moment, she desperately grabbed for her gun and darted back into the false-safety of the street.

Through the beating rain, she remained flat against the closest building, waiting for the SWATbot to come looking for her. Curious of the delay, she peeked around the corner. The sight of the horribly battered and disabled machine calmed her nerves, and she slung her weapon back around her shoulder. She recollected herself and grabbed onto an ancient fire escape ladder next to the robot.

After the grueling matter of keeping quiet for the entire climb, she found herself on a catwalk. From the looks of it, it had been constructed much more recently than the ruins below. She found a dark corner and pulled out her computer, and began analyzing the layout of the district she was in. The old map was outdated even for the city of Mobotropolis, and the renovations that Robotnik made after seizing the city were further complicating matters. These office buildings had long ago been converted into factories, charged with constructing legions of SWATbots and producing any number of other objects or ammunition.

She studied the schematics for a moment to find a potential route, and set out again, staying in the shadows as much as possible. Much to her distress, she could hear robots working in the surrounding factories now, and security robots would certainly be nearby. She puzzled over the apparently low level of activity however. Robotnik rarely shut down any factories for any reason, and if his project required such an extensive reworking of his factories, it was great indeed.

Her progress was halted as she came upon a newly constructed building, likely a maintenance bay from her brief analysis. Frustrated that the building was in her path, she began to recklessly search for an alternate route. She hopped atop a crate and peered into the bay, and found it to be empty. With no activity in sight, she jumped back onto the catwalk and casually walked towards the corner of the building.

"Sound coming from this way. Investigating," a monotone robotic voice blurted out from a direction she couldn't determine. In a panic, she dove for the nearest cover available. Heavy footsteps clanged loudly on the metal catwalk, approaching her. A moment later, they stopped.

"Silence, possible interference. Checking heat signatures," the robot continued, out of sight. With curiosity overcoming her common sense, she peeked up over the crate she hid behind. Where she expected to see the menacing red eye-slit of a SWATbot, only the image of a deer came into view. Or what had been one before Robotnik got his grubby hands on it and transformed it into his slave.

It continued to survey the bleak environment, tilting its large ears around to listen for movement. Sissera snapped back to her senses and decided to return to the safety of cover. Her face contorted with terror as he mud-slicked boots slid against the smooth wet metal of the catwalk, and she crashed into another pile of debris. To her horror, the deer snapped to attention and whirled around to face her, its glowing red eyes transfixed on her.

"Intruder detected!" it shouted as it raised its arm in her direction. She scrambled to her feet and thrust herself towards the protection of a metal crate, dodging the incoming laser beam by only a fraction of a second. The deer's robotic reflexes were far superior to hers, and it managed to burn several fist sized holes in her skirt and the wall behind her with its arm-mounted laser.

She spotted another ladder leading down and dashed to its safety, hoping against all odds that none of the other robots in the vicinity heard the commotion. As she hit the ladder, she wasted no time in sliding down the slick metal. She slammed into the ground several stories below, and after taking a moment to recover grabbed for her comm-microphone. With the deer out of sight, she raced down the alley for the street. As she burst from the darkness into the abandoned street, her attention was caught by light glinting off metal above her. From the catwalk, the roboticized deer launched itself, landing with an echoing crack as its weight shattered the concrete beneath it.

It turned to face her and snarled, revealing unnaturally sharp metal teeth. She stepped back defensively as it snatched a metal pole from the ground. As it hurled itself at her again, she dropped to the ground, causing the deer's swing to go wide. With all of her strength, she planted her boot into the deer's chest, knocking the robot off balance. She exploited the moment by jumping to her feet and unslinging the plasma gun from her back. The ornery weapon clicked as she managed to deactivate the safety, and she began cautiously backing away from her assailant.

The deer regained its composure and shouted, "Halt and submit your self to Robotnik! You can't escape the inevitable!" It blindly dashed towards her, preparing to apprehend her at any cost.

Desperate to put distance between herself and the robot, she sprinted into another nearby alley. As she entered the alley, she turned and set herself up to be ready when the robot followed. A sigh of relief passed her lips as the ready indicator on her gun flashed on, moments before the deer burst into the alley. In an instant that seemed an eternity, its face shifted from a determined scowl, to confusion, then to outright terror. It scrabbled backwards to avoid the weapon, but it was too late. As she squeezed the trigger, their world was bathed in a blinding flash from a burst of purple-glowing plasma rocketing from the weapon.

The deer's attempt to escape was cut short as the plasma burst engulfed its shoulder. As the plasma struck its target, it detonated in an incredible explosion that knocked Sissera from her feet. Flying debris shot past her on all sides as she landed over a meter away from her firing position.

As the scene settled, she rose to her feet, with a particular image striking her as odd. She had never seen one of the robots react with fear before. With her weapon still drawn, she slowly approached the fallen robot. She was surprised to find it mostly intact, and above all still functional.

Instead of grabbing thoughtlessly at her with its remaining hand, it simply looked on in a state of confusion and horror. It weakly uttered, "No... p-please, don't kill me... I... didn't want to do it... I... couldn't... stop..." The deer trailed off, closed its eyes, and let out a muffled sigh.

Sissera was shocked. Never before had she seen one of the robots act in any such a manner. She was beginning to feel genuinely sorrowful for shooting it, but her thoughts were interrupted as she noticed the rain still sprinkling from above evaporating as it touched the robot's body. At first she thought it was simply heat left over from the plasma impact, but soon she began to feel growing warmth from the machine's shattered remains. As the exposed metal within began to glow with heat, a terrible realization struck her. She immediately began to run for her life, faster than she could ever remember running. She dove into a nearby alley to place the building between her and the fallen machine, and raced to gain distance.

Her efforts were hopeless though, as the heat growing within the machine melted through its reactor wall and released the energy inside An incredible blast of energy ensued, collapsing the building behind her and hurling her further down the street. She found herself disoriented and unable to move, with a sinister blackness encroaching on her vision.

"What on Mobius was that!?" a startled voice shouted over the comm-net after a moment. "Everyone okay?"

* * *

"Snively! Shut that alarm off permanently!" Robotnik shouted, jumping to his feet and startling Cluck. The mechanical bird let out an irritated series of squawks and glared at Snively alongside its master.

"Sorry sir, but I think this is serious."

"What? One of the robots accidentally fell into a smelter and was destroyed? I don't have time for this!"

"No sir, there was an explosion near security substation seven. One of the robots nearby reported running into an intruder less than a minute beforehand. It is no longer responding."

"Fine, Snively... send a team of SWATbots to see what happened. If those pesky freedom fighters intend to bomb my city, then I have no choice."

Snively sneered and mouthed, "I told you so," to his computer screen. He pressed the intercom button and spoke aloud, "Attention, any SWATbots near security substation seven, investigate the source of the explosion. All workers remain at your posts."

* * *

"Sissera isn't responding on her radio, who's the closest to her?" Kyros addressed the team.

"Me, I think. I'm already on the way," Tantalus replied.

"Good, I guess everyone heard the little twerp's broadcast, so our stay is past welcome. Tantalus, I'm on the way to help, everyone else head back to the hovercraft and get it warmed up. Try to avoid any confrontation, but at this point expect anything."

"Thanks Kyros," Tantalus said before folding away his headset's microphone. The smoke billowing from an unseen source several blocks away filled him with anxiety. As he set off down the road he pulled his laser rifle from its holster and aimed it at every odd shape along the way. He felt himself overtaken with awe as he rounded the street corner and caught sight of the debris from the explosion.

Damaged buildings leaned into the street, spewing black smoke from growing fires. Rain from overhead began to spout steam from the fires, and the deepening mud in the street sloshed under his hurried footfalls. He nervously eyed each alley and street he passed, expecting legions of SWATbots to appear and carry him off to his doom.

He slowed as he reached the large mass of debris blocking the street, anxiously looking for any sign of Sissera. Dread began to fill him as time passed, bringing the SWATbots closer. In desperation, he thrust the barrel of his rifle into the rubble pile and began to remove the debris at the edge. He jumped slightly as part of the mound collapsed, revealing the horribly damaged remains of a roboticized deer. The robot stared blankly into the sky, its mouth hanging limply.

As he looked over its shattered body, he heard a peculiar weak moan from a distance further down the street. He snapped to attention and leaped from the pile, glancing down the street in hopes of pinpointing the source of the sound. At the sight of a figure lying prone in an intersection behind the obliterated building, he bolted from his position. The distinct image of Sissera, lying haphazardly in the mud, became apparent as he neared her.

He slid to a stop next to her and knelt down. "Sissera, can you hear me?"

Her eyes opened slightly and searched randomly for him as she mumbled something incoherent. He snatched up her gun and threw its strap around his shoulder, and carefully tried to lift her from the ground. She let out a sharp cry as he touched her, and her face tensed in pain. He panicked and looked back down the street for any signs of the approaching robots, seeing a shadow forming in an alley next to them.

He raised his laser rifle and aimed it at the spot, prepared to fight to the bitter end. As the figure drew closer, he partially squeezed the trigger to snap off a shot at a moment's notice. He tensed his finger and drew aim as Kyros appeared from the shadows.

"Kyros! Man am I glad you're here."

"Did you find Sissera? We don't have long," he questioned the squirrel.

Tantalus grew serious-faced and pointed to her lying in the street. "Yeah, but she's in bad shape."

* * *

"Come on, they're catching up with us!" Kyros yelled to Tantalus from a street intersection. He looked back intently as the squirrel carefully carried Sissera along. Frustration overcame him as he saw a SWATbot racing towards them in the machine's normal stiff fashion. If he never had to fight his way out of Robotropolis again it would be too soon. "Watch it!" he shouted as he drew aim on the robot and placed three glowing beams of energy through its body.

Tantalus dragged to a stop beside him and huffed, "How much further?"

"Stanley and Seltic are bringing the ship in to pick us up, and I hope they're nearby." Kyros motioned for Tantalus to follow him, and set off down another street in the general direction of the city's exit. He groaned as two more SWATbots appeared from a factory hangar and opened fire at him. One beam struck the dirt in front of him, and the other spattered off his body armor.

Kyros grunted in pain as his armor absorbed the impact and hefted his rifle to bear as one of the robots droned, "Intruder alert, surrender yourselves to Lord Robotnik."

"Beat it, dumb-bots," Kyros said as he emptied the remaining energy in his clip into the two. They stumbled and fired blindly as they were cut down, landing in crumpled heaps of smoldering metal. He once again signaled for Tantalus to move up to him as he slapped a new energy pack into his rifle.

The sight of nearly a dozen SWATbots began to concern Kyros. "This isn't good, we've got to get out of here, now," he whispered to Tantalus as he removed a grenade from his belt. He hurled the bomb towards the approaching mob of machines and hunched over, covering his ears.

Glowing hot fragments of metal armor and components blew past them as the grenade detonated, obliterating most of the SWATbots and disabling the rest. A smile formed on his face at the result, and he inched his way further down the path. He halted in shock as he reached the top of a hill, and stared on at the robot choked street below. Mixed in with the legions of SWATbots, a combat specialized roboticized alligator caught sight of him. Several red beams of focused light ripped through the air past his head, and he retreated back to Tantalus in cover moments before dozens beams followed. "This is getting bad, fast. We're cut off from the exit, and there's a combat robot up ahead. I don't know if these lasers are going to be enough."

He puzzled over the sound of the SWATbots announcing their standard warning in the distance. Thundering pulses echoed through the cityscape as heavy laser cannons opened fire, and the distinct hum of a hover engine became apparent over the SWATbots being demolished.

The alligator suddenly soared overhead and landed in a heap several meters away from Kyros. It rolled over and let out a pained growl as it clutched at several massive holes in its body where the laser cannons hit home. With dogged determination, it crawled towards Kyros and began to draw aim at him with one of its weapons. Kyros prepared to empty his weapon into it moments before the hovercraft burst into view, throwing several SWATbots into the air as it hurtled through their lines. Its heavy laser cannons opened fire again, reducing the alligator to dozens of flaming metal chunks.

Kyros jumped into the street and flagged the hovercraft down, relieved beyond words that they had arrived. He pulled the door back as it slowed to a stately slide, and hopped inside. Tantalus quickly followed suit, hefting Sissera into the bay of the craft.

Kyros burst into the cockpit and said to Stanley, "Move over, I'm driving."

"Sissera! What happened?" Seltic exclaimed as he entered the passenger bay.


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

_Armadi – Two days later_

_11:39 AM_

"I brought something for you to eat, since you probably won't make it to lunch again," Maya said to Sissera as she set a bowl of soup on her nightstand. She looked her in the face a offered a smile. "Are you feeling any better? We've still got a lot of ice cream left if you want me to bring you some."

Sissera groaned and tried to sit up in her bed. She took the bowl of soup and replied, "That's okay. I finally got some sleep last night, but every cricket chirp still feels like someone is stabbing me in the back of the head."

"Well, at least you're doing a little better. We were so worried about you when Kyros got back. No one knew what to do."

"Everything over the past few days is still somewhat hazy, but I guess it could have been worse. I'm just a little banged up."

Maya took a seat in a chair by the bed and replied, "Yeah, but I feel so guilty over this. I don't know how I got the job of sending you all off to get hurt, but I don't think I'm cut out for it. After you and Vladimir got hurt I just don't know anymore." She sighed and looked away.

Sissera took a sip of soup and weakly replied, "It's not your fault, it's Robotnik. I should have been more careful anyway, I mean we brought the EMP charges to prevent this sort of thing."

"Don't beat yourselves up over this," Seltic said from another room before entering. "We should just be thankful that something worse didn't happen."

Maya took a deep breath and looked up. "I guess so. Did you at least manage to recover any information from the surveillance data?"

Seltic cut his eyes to the floor and admitted, "I'm afraid not. I wasn't able to get much info while we were there, and what I've got shows nothing more than SWATbots marching around. From what I gather, the system Sissera was heading to was the one that monitored the important areas."

"Well, excuse me." Sissera replied, cutting her eyes to him.

"So, we've got nothing to show for our efforts over the last two missions other than you getting hurt. Maybe it's just bad luck, but I keep getting the feeling that we are dealing with a much more serious threat this time."

"It's just that, bad luck. Vladimir and I will be fine, and once I'm back on my feet we can get back to work."

"Have you scheduled anymore missions yet?," Seltic asked Maya.

She sat it thought for a moment before replying, "No, not yet. I haven't thought about it, but we are going to have to go back eventually. I think everyone has earned a few days off."

Sissera balked at her soup, prompting Maya to quickly ask, "Something wrong?"

"Just a little hot, it tastes great," she replied. "Don't worry yourself so much."

* * *

As Maya returned to the settlement's cafeteria, she tried to clear her mind. Things were getting bad, but as Seltic and Sissera said things could be much worse. They would certainly get worse whenever Robotnik finished working on whatever he had in store and unleashed it on the planet. She could be thankful that Robotnik at least rarely concerned himself with them specifically, but anything that threatened the world threatened them regardless.

She brushed a fallen leaf from her sleeve and opened the door to the kitchen. Inside, Marcus was anxiously milling about. "Marcus dear, what are you looking for? Are you hungry yet?"

He spun around to face her and replied, "Oh, miss Maya! No ma'am, I was just looking for you, Stanley wanted to know when lunch was going to be ready."

She smiled and shut the door. "It's ready now, so you can go tell everyone to come eat if they want."

"Okay," he replied before looking away. From the look on his face, Maya could tell he had something else on his mind.

"You have something else you need to ask me?"

He shyly looked up and nodded. "I just wanted to ask you something about... Dr. Robotnik."

She raised an eyebrow and replied, "Alright, what did you want to know?"

"What is he exactly? He's big and scary like a bear, but I mean he doesn't have any fur or anything."

Maya looked on in surprise for a moment before realizing that Marcus was too young to remember much about the world before Robotnik took over. She pulled out a chair and motioned for him to sit. "You might want to have a seat."

He obliged and sat down, looking to her intently.

"Robotnik is something called an overlander. A long time ago, back when I was just a little girl, overlanders lived with us without too much fuss." She smiled at him and continued, "Hard to imagine, I know."

"What happened?"

"Well, for some reason the overlanders got where they didn't like us too much. They all moved into their own cities and for the most part stayed away from us, which was fine. A few years later though, things got a good bit worse. Some overlanders got where they would attack and kill anyone they found by themselves, and the overlander government didn't seem to care."

Marcus silently listened, captivated.

"Everyone was scared back then. I remember my husband telling me to stay indoors all of the time. Everything was getting bad when King Acorn united all of our nations together and started to fight back. Everyone for the first time in years felt safe, and we thought that life would return to normal.

"It didn't though, and the overlanders began to win the war. We had lived peacefully with them for generations, and the violent overlanders had much better weapons than ours. I think nearly a million people were killed in the wars that continued for years. Warlord Kodos did everything he could, but we just couldn't hope to stand up to them. But that's when Julian came."

"You mean Robotnik?"

"Yes, but he called himself Julian Kintobor then. He was an outcast from overlander society, and begged for us to all allow him refuge. King Acorn reluctantly allowed him to stay, provided that he told us everything he knew about the overlanders. Julian eventually showed himself to be a brilliant scientist, and masterful tactician, and before we knew it he had convinced King Acorn to promote him to Warlord, replacing Kodos who had been killed sometime before.

"We were all skeptical about Julian, but beyond belief he actually turned the tide in the war and allowed us to eventually grab victory from the overlanders. Julian provided us with many technological marvels that the overlanders kept secret, and with our greater numbers and new technology we were able to force the overlanders to surrender. By then Julian was a hero to us all, even me. We thought that perhaps not every overlander was so evil, and that he would be our savior.

"With the war over and the overlanders surrendered, life started to return to normal. Julian was appointed to the Ministry of Science, and continued to dazzle us with his knowledge. He helped Sir Charles develop the first roboticizer, but then we didn't know how it would come back to haunt us.

"One day, Julian lost his mind and turned traitor. He turned everyone in Mobotropolis into robots, including the king and his family, and set out to do the same to the rest of the world. After only a few days he managed to roboticize almost everyone around here, and he began turning the once beautiful Mobotropolis into his own personal garbage dump. Shortly thereafter, he turned his attention away from roboticizing people to something else entirely.

"Using the most powerful weapons left over from the war, he killed almost every overlander left. No one knows why he chose to do that, but now he and his nephew Snively are just about the only ones left. Well, as far as I know." She looked from the floor to him and asked, "Well, that was a bit long, but did it answer your question?"

Marcus nodded and replied, "Yes ma'am, I think I understand. But, why were the overlanders so mean? Why does Robotnik want to turn us all into robots?"

She sighed and said, "I don't know either, dear. I've asked myself that question too many times to count."

* * *

Although she had been anxious to get out of bed earlier in the day, Sissera found herself too tired to even make it to the cafeteria for dinner. So, to help her feel better everyone had decided to eat leftover soup at Seltic and Sissera's house. She was thankful for the company, but felt a little awkward having everyone change their agendas for her.

"Is the soup alright?" Maya directed anonymously to the gathering. Everyone nodded or offered a bland "Uh-huh."

"So, you feeling any better yet?" Kyros asked Sissera after an awkward silence.

"A little," she offered.

"You're lucky to be alive," Tantalus added after slurping from his spoon. "I mean, if one of those bots got the best of Vlad, then they could have wiped the floor with any of the rest of us."

"I know," she said. "I still can't believe it, and don't really remember what happened."

"You were mumbling an awful lot on the way back, seemed to remember a good bit then" Kyros added as he finished his bowl.

"It's pretty common with head injuries... I may or may not ever remember what happened."

"Alright everyone, stop hounding her," Maya said, raising her hand to quell everyone.

"Aw, come on, talking about it always makes it better," Stanley jested.

"Yeah, it's alright," Sissera said.

"I just wish I was there when it happened," Seltic directed to the floor.

"And what? You're not exactly the one I'd expect to make a big difference," Kyros joked.

Seltic sighed and looked away. "And you would have?"

"I didn't say that, but let's just say that another plasma gun going off randomly wouldn't have helped a whole lot. I mean, she burned herself a little with her own gun, just imagine two of those things going off at the same time. It'd have been a-" Kyros continued, cut off by Maya raising her hand in his direction.

"Sissera, dear, are you alright?" she asked the hedgehog after quieting Kyros.

Sissera, who had been staring off somewhat blankly for a moment blinked and replied, "Oh, uh yeah. I'm fine, it's just that I'm starting to remember what happened."

"You got hit by an exploding robot," Kyros added sarcastically.

"No, no. I mean I remember exactly what happened now," she continued. "It was so odd."

"What do you mean?" Tantalus asked between sips.

"It was the robot itself, it just acted so strangely," she said before becoming visibly shaken up. She remained silent for a moment before finishing, "It... he begged me not to kill him."

Everyone grew silent and exchanged curious expressions. Seltic, particularly interested, edged her on. "It... asked you not to kill it?"

"Sort of..." she replied after a moment to collect her thoughts. "I was walking along a factory or something, when it spotted me. I-I tried to get away, but of course it... he chased me. I managed to get my plasma gun out and run into an alley. When he came around the corner, and stared down my gun's barrel, he was afraid."

"We've all seen the robots be startled by stuff before, but that's nothing new," Kyros said.

"No... he wasn't startled, he was... terrified. Scared to die. But, it was too late, and the gun went off and hit him."

"When did he, err, it ask you not to kill it?" Seltic asked, intently listening.

"Well, the plasma shot didn't really hit him squarely and didn't do too much. It knocked him down and tore his arm off, but he was still alive. When I found him..." she replied, setting down her bowl of soup. "He looked up at me in horror, and begged me to forgive him, and not to kill him.."

"And you still did?" Maya asked, now greatly interested.

"No! I mean, I didn't mean to. The blast damaged his reactor or something, and it exploded. That's when I lost consciousness."

"You mean his reactor exploded? Wow, there was an awful lot left of him for that," Tantalus said, placing his empty bowl on a table.

Seltic immediately glanced over to him and asked, "You saw it? How much?"

"His head and body. His face was banged up pretty bad, and he was missing an arm and both legs, but there was still a good bit there."

Seltic raised his hand to his chin and grew quiet with thought. Kyros crossed his arms and asked him, "You can't possibly be thinking about trying to find it and bring it back here, can you?"

"There's so much that I might be able to learn if we could... I mean with a little work I might be able to figure out a tremendous amount about the roboticizer, and maybe a way to get the other robots to act normal again."

"There's no way the robot would still be there by the time we got back," Stanley said.

"Well, Robotnik has been way behind on stuff like cleanup since he started the construction projects, so there's a small chance. I'll take what I can get. Maya, when is the next mission?"

She looked at him and replied, "Well, I don't know. We've had a few days to recollect ourselves, and we do need some things. Maybe tomorrow or the next day."

"Great," Kyros said.

Sissera looked down and yawned loudly. Maya placed her hand on the tenrec's back and addressed everyone, "I think Sissera is getting a little tired, so we should probably leave her alone for now."


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

_The next day_

_7:21 PM_

The sound of Robotnik snoring loudly over the intercom gave Snively pause. He normally enjoyed doing things to annoy his pompous uncle, but only when not dangerous to his own health. He desperately wanted to wake Robotnik with an obnoxious alarm or sound, but knew better given the circumstances. Robotnik would certainly want to hear the news Snively had, but there was no way to wake him peacefully.

He waltzed over to the doctor's throne and pulled himself into the chair. "Snively! What's that sound!?" he bellowed to the empty room, mocking Robotnik. "Snively! What's the status on the project? Snively! Aren't you done yet!? Snively! Bring me my coffee! Snively! Cluck needs an oil change!"

He snickered to himself, pleased. One day he would have the chance to order people around, but for now he had to stomach another day accepting orders from his blathering uncle. He relaxed and flicked the control on the chair's armrest. With each press of a button, the massive screen fixed to the wall cycled through a variety of security cameras throughout the primary operation complex. As it settled on Robotnik's luxurious bedroom, Snively sneered. Through the dim lighting, scores of Robotnik's portraits stared back at him, and the distinctive mountain that was Robotnik himself was obvious through the royal purple bedsheets.

He depressed a button and called meekly into the microphone, "Excuse me, sir, I have some news." Unsurprisingly, there was no response. He spoke loudly into the system, "Sir, I have some news for you!"

With still no response, he shouted, "Dr. Robotnik! I have some news you should hear!" Instantly Robotnik jumped up in his bed, followed by Cluck fluttering to life on a perch nearby. Robotnik glanced around the room for an instant before settling his glowing robotic eyes on the camera.

The doctor grunted and sneered. "This had better be important, Snively..."

"Sir, as you requested, I wanted to let you know that the robots have finally finished constructing the launch pads. They are preparing them as we speak for the first tests, which as you know can't be performed without your supervision."

Robotnik grinned and clasped his hands together. "That is good news, I'll be there momentarily." He tossed his bedsheets up and stared into the camera before adding, "Oh, and Snively, are you in my chair?"

"N-No sir, I'd never do that!" he replied, hastily shutting off the monitor. Robotnik was in a good mood for the first time in weeks, and he didn't intend to ruin it by making a crack, or mentioning that a sizable portion of materials had gone missing earlier that day. When Robotnik was in a good mood, Snively's life was much less stressful.

* * *

"I thought it was supposed to be Seltic's turn to cook today," Kyros said to everyone as he barged into the cafeteria.

Seltic replied with a puzzled look and asked, "Now what's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing. It's just that you normally just heat up something from the freezer, and whatever is cooking smells too good for that."

"Actually, it was supposed to be Sissera's turn tonight, but since she's still a little weary I took over for her," Maya said from the kitchen. Moments later she gingerly stepped through the swinging doors, brandishing a pizza-topped tray. Everyone instantly grew quiet and watched as she set the gourmet dish on the table and pulled out a slicer. "I wanted to thank everyone for the effort you've all been putting out lately, so I couldn't resist cooking this up when I saw what Kyros brought back this morning."

"There was a mission this morning?" Sissera innocently asked as she lugged herself into a chair.

"Yeah, while you were still snoozing, Kyros, Tantalus, Vlad, and I went back to Robotropolis and did a little looting," Stanely replied, accepting a plate of Pizza from Maya.

"I thought we should probably take a few days off from spying and get back to rebuilding here," she added.

"We found a couple million tons of prefabricated walls lying around, so we took them off of Robotnik's hands. We've got enough to rebuild the lookout station ten times, so I'm sure you can find something to use it for."

"Maybe Kyros can get his own house now and not have to live in the attic of the utility garage," Tantalus added before taking his first bite from the pizza. "Wow, this is the best pizza I've ever tasted!"

"I don't know about that now," Maya said humbly. "It's been so long since any of us have eaten it, after all."

"No, I mean it. I'm loving this about as much as Seltic's going to love putting that robot back together."

"You mean you found it?" Seltic asked excitedly, eyes wide.

"It wasn't easy, but yeah, we got what was left of it. Better shape than I'd have figured, but still not too good," Kyros replied.

"Now, Seltic, before you run off after lunch to spend the rest of the day cooped up in your lab, I want you to help Kyros and Vladimir start putting the lookout station back together," Maya said.

"Yes ma'am," he acknowledged.

Maya finished handing out plates of pizza and began to cut some for herself. "Kyros, I didn't get the chance to ask earlier, but did you happen to find anything new while you were there?"

Kyros scarfed down a bite and replied, "No, not really. Robotnik hadn't cleaned up the mess at all yet, and everything seemed to be going about the same. You know, security being too lax in the outer areas of the city, the works."

"How long exactly has this been going on for now?" Sissera asked.

"We've known that he's been up to something for over a week now, but like always he had probably been planning it for months," Maya answered.

"And we still haven't figured much out," Seltic added, "every time we get close to getting some decent info, something goes wrong."

"His luck can last only so long," Vladimir broke in, to everyone's mild surprise.

"And when we do figure it out, you're going to give Robotnik what's coming to him, right?" Marcus said to the badger.

"Of course."

"Don't you worry about a thing, dear. We'll get back at him some day," Maya consoled him.

* * *

"It took you long enough," Kyros shouted to Seltic as he spied him approaching the construction site from the woods.

Seltic closed the distance slightly and replied, "I had to test the power lines running out here before we got started. The last thing we needed out here was an electrical fire."

"Ha-ha," he mocked. "I know, I get it. Fire bad."

"Anyway, what have we got to work with?"

"This," Vladimir grunted to the two, dragging a large sheet of plastic-ceramic prefab material towards the tree that housed the previous shelter. He kicked a chunk of burnt remains aside and propped the sheet against the tree.

"Looks like it's about the same stuff as before," Seltic mumbled to himself. "I don't know why Maya insisted I come out here, I mean you guys can probably do this just as fast without me."

"I know, even Stanley would be more help."

Seltic stepped over to the tree and looked up into its incinerated branches. "I just hope this tree can hold up."

"Didn't the old station fall out when Sissera went looking inside?"

"Yeah, exactly. Are there any other trees around here that look better?"

"I think we were going to use that tree over there, but it was too small or something. Then again, it's been years," Kyros replied as he pointed to a nearby tree.

Seltic took a moment to look over the tree and pulled a powered saw from the toolbox that he had lugged out to the site. "I figured we might need this, so who wants the honors?"

Kyros glanced over to Vladimir and said, "I think this is your niche."

Vladimir gave him a grim look and took the tool from Seltic. He awkwardly grasped a low branch and pulled himself into the tree. "Where should I start?"

"A little higher, just get up to a decent height and find a few branches that can hold the station," Kyros called to him.

Vladimir grunted a reply and climbed higher into the tree. As he reached about a story from the ground, he placed the saw against a small branch and asked the two below, "Is this high enough?"

Seltic glanced back to the old tree and replied, "Yeah, I think so, go ahead."

Kyros dodged a falling branch and asked Seltic, "I'm surprised you didn't bring part of that robot out here or something. You looked a little too eager to ask us to bring it back to ignore it for this long."

Seltic sighed. "I would have, but Maya really did insist that I come out here first."

"Come on, she'd get over it. Besides, it's not like you ever get in trouble with her, it's always me."

"Now don't play that card. I don't get in trouble because I make it a point to do what she asks. If you did what she asked, you'd never get in trouble either."

"Really? Remember when we went to take out a satellite relay in Robotropolis last year?"

"Yeah, so?"

"She freaked out on me because I 'got the ship all beat up' when the defense forces started shooting. How am I supposed to keep them from shooting at me?"

"If I remember correctly, she got mad because you took the ship too far into the city after she told you not to. You could have been killed you know. She's only looking out for you."

Kyros stared at him blankly for a moment. "I can take care of myself. I'm 27 for crying out loud. It's not like she's my mom or something."

Seltic smiled and replied, "Just don't take it that way, she's looking out for all of us. She really is old enough to be our mom, so I guess she just feels like we're her kids or something."

Kyros chuckled. "I guess you're right."

"Anyway, I'd have that robot out here anyway if it wasn't for all of the dust that could muck it up. She never said I couldn't bring it out here, just that I couldn't stay in my shop all day."

"Yeah, well, I'm not staying out here all day. As soon as Vlad's done here I'm going to slap the floor up and be done with it."

"I hear you there," Seltic replied, watching Vladimir rip a stubborn branch down.

* * *

Seltic anxiously checked the bank of transformers lining the interior wall of the generator shed, closing the cover over each as it blinked a green safety light. As he shut the final cover he reset the computer with a practiced series of commands and left the shed to its normal automated procedures. Now that the power grid had been checked and electricity rerouted back to the lookout station, Seltic could concentrate on his true prize.

He could feel himself tensing up as he always did when he was excited about something. Beneath a ramshackle pile of random scraps deposited by Kyros after returning to the settlement, a hint of brown glossy metal flickered under the faint accent lights hanging from the shed. Seltic eagerly brushed the pieces of trash aside to reveal the devastated robot. He examined the remains, rotating the head around to check for any serious damage. Convinced that the damage to the robot's eye and face was superficial, he pulled the robot from beside the shed and into the light cast by a night light overhead.

Despite having half of its body missing, the robot proved to be quite heavy. Seltic awkwardly dragged it through the moon-lit night towards his workshop, taking a moment to glance back at his trophy as he passed under the lights strung between the buildings. He began running possible schematics through his mind, and failed to withhold a childish smile. As he reached the gritty exterior of his home and workshop, he fumbled with a keypad to enter his thirty two digit access code.

Amazed that he managed to enter the code correctly on the first try, he hurried inside as the great vehicle door ground open. He set the roboticized deer's body in the first opening on the floor he came to and flicked the light switch. The lights blazed to life, revealing the workbenches and computers that he had ignored for too long. He was going to enjoy this.

* * *

After two hours of dissecting the entrails-like wiring of the robot, connecting power sources, searching for tools, and cursing himself for his mistakes, Seltic had managed to mostly reassemble the deer's vital internal systems. Despite being exhausted from the ordeal, and it being well after midnight, Seltic decided to press on with matters. He meticulously connected a final line where the annihilated generator once resided, and flipped the needed switches to send power through the deer hanging from an engine crane.

Curiously, the robot's body twitched for several moments after the raw electrical energy coursed through the power lines. Seltic approached it and passively raised its remaining arm before muttering, "Well buddy, you've been through a lot, but at least you'll be worth something now."

He breathed deeply and shuffled over to the computer wired into the robot. The internal structure of the machine's memory was impossible to guess, and he could only hope that the circuitry and systems would be still be functional to some degree. He had written a series of programs to retrieve important data from one of the robots' memory years ago when he had an opportunity to examine the programming of the original roboticizer, but he was confident that Robotnik had modified it in some way.

It had been years since Seltic had last had an opportunity to dissect and study the internals of a roboticized person, and even then he learned very little. Everyone else seemed to think of the entire process as too morbid, considering that it had actually been a person at one point.

Kyros had personally exclaimed his dissatisfaction of the idea earlier that day while the two were working on the watch station, but mostly because he though Seltic was wasting his time. The deer was very badly damaged, but he remained optimistic for once in his life. He discarded Kyros' comment and ran the first program from his computer.

As he waited for the program to return some meaningful information, he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. He snapped his eyes to focus on the deer, and jumped as it blinked and shifted itself into a more natural position. It stared blankly forward into the wall behind him, its good eye half opened in a lethargic expression. Seltic watched intently as it opened its mouth and vaguely droned, "Critical damaged detected. Power failure has resulted in loss of volatile memory and possible circuit damage. Should I attempt to recover my operating system?"

Seltic stared on in disbelief and stammered the response, "Uh, y-yes?"

After receiving no response, he turned to the computer and found the same prompt. He typed the requisite answer and looked back to the deer. It blinked once more and responded, "Understood, please wait."

The deer fell limp and closed its eyes. After an agonizing wait, it twitched its ear and scowled as if in deep pain, letting out a weak moan. At last it muttered, "Am... I dead?"

"I-impossible," Seltic stuttered in response. He stepped back and marveled at the events unfolding.

The deer opened its good eye partially and slurred, "So... there is an afterlife. And God has a squeaky voice." It weakly turned its head and eye to scan the room and continued, "I must still be in Hell, and Snively's here with me."

It turned its attention to Seltic and tried to focus on him. The mechanics in its eyes whirred to bring him into focus, glass shards and sparks showering from its dim left eye. Moments later its eyes snapped open and it threw its arm up defensively. "No! Please, don't kill me!" it shouted, moving its stump of an arm to meekly cover it terrified face.

Seltic stepped back and raised his palms to face his guest, replying, "Whoa, whoa, it's alright! I'm not going to hurt you."

The deer trembled for a moment more before peeking through its fingers at the tenrec. "Wh-who are you? Where am I?"

"My name is Seltic Tregenoas, and you're in the remains of the town of Armadi."

"I... don't understand."

Seltic stepped closer and continued, "It's sort of a long story, what's the last thing you remember?"

The deer lowered its arm and stared off. "I remember being scared, and a green tenrec shooting me... but... nothing afterwards."

"That was my sister. She ran into you in Robotropolis. When you attacked her, she had no choice but to fight back. She thought you were destroyed."

The robot listened, confusion playing across its face. "But, why am I here?"

"That's the odd part. She said that you weren't acting normally, and I had hopes that I might be able to find out a way to defeat the roboticizer if I could examine you. We had no idea that you were still alive..."

At Seltic's mention of the roboticizer, the robot's face went grim. Seltic was certain that if it were possible, tears would be rolling down its metal cheeks. It whispered, "Roboticizer... Robotnik... Mobotropolis... Elise..." It shut its eyes and bowed its head. A soft cry passed its scorched lips as it covered its working eye with its remaining hand.

Seltic placed his hand on the robot's shoulder and said, "It's okay, I know how you feel. We've got all of the time in the world to talk about it, if you want."

It sighed and replied, "I feel so tired and disoriented, I wouldn't know where to begin..."

"Well, do you at least have a name?"

"I'm not sure I even remember... Servitor 5108-CEA... no, Kaplain... I think. Kaplain Daubach."

"Kaplain? Where were you from before Robotnik took over? Did you have a family?" Seltic continued, trying to be helpful.

"I... can't remember the name of the town. But... Elise, I do remember," Kaplain replied, choking on his words again.

"Elise?"

"Sh-she was my wife. We had been married for a few years before... he showed up."

"I see... if this is too painful for you I understand."

"Yes... maybe later," Kaplain said, trying to compose himself. He looked to Seltic and asked, "What are you going to do with me? Let me die? Tear me apart to learn something?"

Seltic answered, "No, of course not! Not now! As long as you're alive you can't give up hope."

"But, look at me! How can I have hope?"

Seltic smiled and placed his hand back onto Kaplain's shoulder. "Don't worry about that, I think I can help. But for now, is there anything else you want to talk about?"

* * *

Sissera groaned and rolled over in her bed to glance at the clock, sighing as she focused her eyes on the red digital numbers. Ever since the incident in Robotropolis, she had been finding it difficult to sleep, and the thought of another long night frustrated her. Thankfully, she hadn't been asked to return to the city since she had been injured, but even without the added stress she was still tired and dragging around.

As she mulled over the past day and tried to make out the outlines of the shapes in the dark room, she overheard the mechanical grinding of Seltic working on something from his side of the building. For a moment she glared into the ceiling and sneered, blaming Seltic's noise for her inability to sleep.

A second later, a realization dawned on her. Even Seltic rarely worked so late into the night. She snapped her eyes back to the clock and confirmed the time of 3AM. Curious, she sat up in her bed and looked towards the door separating their rooms, and noticed no light bleeding around the edges of the door frame.

She forced herself out of bed and fumbled with her desk lamp for a moment. She squinted through the bright light as the lamp flared to life, and after taking a moment to clear her head she stood. After another faint mechanical whine filled the room, she inched her way towards the door. With a cautious twist of the knob, she opened the door far enough to peek into the hallway between the halves of the building. Through the pitch darkness, only a pair of minuscule red lights on the alarm system mounted on the wall stared back.

She flipped the hallway light on and proceeded towards Seltic's workshop. Just as before, no light shined through the break in the door and floor, and she nearly dismissed her worries moments before the mechanical sound repeated itself. Her heart began to race in her chest as she pondered the sound. There were an infinite number of things in his shop that could produce the sound, but without Seltic causing it, she couldn't imagine what was causing it.

She took a deep breath and began to reach for the door controls. She jumped back with a shriek as the door next to her opened moments before she could press the controls. From behind the door, Seltic stepped through with a groggy expression. "What are you doing up?"

"I couldn't sleep. I heard something going on in there, so I got up to check what it was. Why are you up?"

He smiled and replied, "Same as you. I heard something moving around and I had to get up." He looked towards the door that Sissera was about to go through and added, "It's nothing. I've got the robot hooked up and it's making some noise. Don't worry about it."


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

_Armadi – Two days later_

_9:04 AM_

Seltic examined the finishing touches of the machinery he was working on and smiled at his accomplishment. He was making steady progress on his new pet project, but still had a long way to go before it was finished. With his work finished for the moment, he set the complex assembly of hydraulics, cables, sensors, and metal aside and gulped the last of his coffee. As he prepared to stand, he heard the thundering of someone knocking on the building's entrance doorway down the hall.

He jumped up and sprinted down the hall towards the door, noticing Kyros standing with an impatient expression outside. Seltic cracked the door and poked his head out, asking, "Yes?"

Kyros gave him and odd look and answered, "What? You hiding something?"

"Uh... no."

"Anyway, Maya wants to talk with you when you get a minute. She's at her house."

"Okay, thanks," Seltic replied, waving him off. Kyros shrugged and stomped off. Seltic sighed and stepped outside, pondering what Maya wanted him for. Armadi was still relatively quiet, with half of everyone still asleep. The only activity in sight was the rather odd spectacle of Marcus washing the two hovercraft in front of the garage.

"Maya got you doing chores?" he asked the young raccoon as he passed by.

"Kinda, she told Stanley to do it, but he's too sleepy," he replied as he reached for the water hose.

"You should have got Maya to come get him out of bed."

"I was going to, but he promised me that he'd take me fishing tomorrow if I did it."

"Oh, okay," Seltic replied, walking off. Stanley was strange about some things for certain. He stayed up well past midnight almost everyday, and slept as late as Maya would let him. If he could get out of unnecessary work, he would usually find someone willing to do it for a trade. But overall Stanley was a good guy, and they had no problems getting along.

As he stepped up to Maya's house, he pulled his key card from his coat pocket and slid it through the reader. He groaned as the reader blared an error, and wiped his card clean. For months he had been meaning to get around to changing all of the locks out in the settlement, but the idea of removing and replacing the complicated devices always seemed to get pushed back in his mind.

Another swipe of the card was received with a confirmation beep, and the lock on the door clicked open. He stepped inside and glanced around for any sign of Maya. "Miss Maya, are you here?"

He heard the sound of someone shuffling around upstairs, and stepped towards the stairs. "I'm up here, come on up," he heard her call from the stairwell.

At the top of the creaky stairs, he found her sitting and studying a few pictures diligently. He inched over to her and peered at the picture she held. "You wanted to see me?"

She put the picture down and took a deep breath before looking up to him. "Yeah. I'm sure you're familiar with the rocket launches that have been plaguing the nights lately, right?"

He instantly recalled the deafening rumble that had come and gone repeatedly each night for the past two days. Through the irritating sound, no one had been able to sleep much, and it was beginning to show on everyone. "Yeah," he grunted.

"I had Kyros take these pictures of one of the rockets last night as it traveled overhead. I was hoping that you might be able to make something of it," she said, handing the pictures to him.

The grainy pictures revealed little to him that he figured she couldn't tell already. "I don't know , it's kind of hard to tell."

She dropped her hand onto the table and said, "I know... this just keeps getting stranger. What could Robotnik possibly be launching?"

"Weapons? Nuclear missiles maybe?" he replied at the first thought that entered his mind.

"I thought so too, but we haven't heard any explosions, and those rockets are very large."

"Well, if he was mining uranium in the mountains, a nuclear weapon would be logical... so if that's not it I don't know. Maybe he's just launching stuff into orbit?"

"But what?" she asked, frustrated.

"I don't know, it seems odd that he would turn his attention to space like that, but we can rest assured that he does have something in mind."

"Yes... and we simply can't afford to dally around anymore."

"I'm guessing that we're heading back to Robotropolis again then, right?" he asked, finally equating Marcus washing the hover ships with them seeing imminent use.

"Yeah, tonight after dinner, Kyros wasn't too happy about the idea. I'm praying that tonight will be the last night that we head in blind, and that we find something significant."

Seltic sighed and asked, "Alright then... is there anything I should do to get ready?"

"You look pretty tired, maybe you should get some sleep first. I think we could all deal with that."

"Yeah, I've been too busy working with the robot to get enough rest."

She perked up at its mention and asked, "I'd forgotten about that thing, have you learned anything?"

He smiled and replied, "Oh yes, I've been keeping it a secret, but I guess now is just as good a time as any. Do you have a minute?"

* * *

"Just wait here a second, I've got to check something first," Seltic told Maya as he opened the door to his workshop.

"Alright," she replied, wondering what he could possibly need to prepare. The entire prospect of him bringing her here was unusual, as even Seltic knew that no one else really understood what he did in workshop, or cared too greatly. He rarely found the need to show off any of his creations, and he hadn't made or modified anything of interest in some time.

"Okay, come in. Try not to freak out or anything."

She stood in the doorway for a moment, puzzlement plastered on her face. As she cautiously slid into the still-dark room, she searched the wall for a light switch. "Why are the lights off?"

"It's part of the surprise. Just remember, don't freak out," he replied from an indeterminate direction.

"Alright," she worriedly replied. From the darkness in front of her, a pair of red circles appeared, one dimmer than the other. She stared at the two glowing images and called, "Seltic?"

She jumped as the images blinked and moved to track her movement. Her heart began to race as she heard the hum of machinery and electronics begin to emanate from their direction. She found herself reflexively reaching for her nonexistent laser pistol as the lights began to fade to life. Mere steps away stood the ravaged form of the robot.

Where its legs had been sheared away in the explosion that felled the robot before, it stood atop the exposed skeleton of new legs; wires and actuators forming an inexplicably complex network. Its face was markedly more solemn than the crazed blood lust that she was accustomed to seeing, with one eye's mechanics exposed and its jaw joints rigged together. It reached out with its remaining arm and offered its hand with a pained smile. "Mrs. Morceaux, I presume?"

She stared back in a stupor, motionless. At last she remembered to let out her breath, and looked to Seltic questioningly.

"It's okay, Kaplain isn't going to bite. I'm not sure he even can right now."

"K-Kaplain?" she asked, nervously raising her hand to meet his.

The deer weakly took her hand and shook it. "Kaplain Daubach. Seltic's told me a lot about everyone here."

"I couldn't tell everyone at first, I was as surprised as you are that he was still alive. He was one of the first people to be captured and roboticized when Robotnik started his coup. He's been living as a robot now for over five years," Seltic picked up, trying to answer Maya's questions before she could ask.

"I-I don't understand..."

"I don't yet either really. Neither Kaplain nor I know exactly what happened, but he's somehow managed to overcome the mind control from the roboticizer. I obviously haven't been able to study his memory too closely though."

"This... is unbelievable," she said at last, looking Kaplain over closely. "You've started repairing him?"

"Yes, and I'm very grateful," Kaplain answered. "I'm extremely lucky to have met Seltic... without him I'd still be..." he paused, "dead."

"He doesn't have anywhere else to go, so I hoped that you wouldn't mind letting him stay here with us," Seltic continued.

"I know this is awkward... and I hate to put you in this position," Kaplain added.

Maya blinked several times and stuttered, "I-I suppose. We've got to let everyone know about this."

* * *

Kyros searched the outer perimeter of the cafeteria as he neared it, hoping to find someone to question about the nature of the meeting that Maya had called. He spotted Stanley on his way to the meeting as well, but was hesitant to start a conversation with him at the time. With no one else to turn to, he asked as he drew close, "Any idea what this is about?"

"Not really, other than she said it had something to do with Seltic and the bot we brought back. It might have something to do with the mission tonight."

"Don't remind me," Kyros grumbled.

"Not looking forward to it?"

Kyros stopped at the doorway and looked at him. "I'm just getting a little sick of running back into Robotropolis ever other day and not figuring anything out. And, to top it off, I've got a headache that would stun a bear."

Stanley shrugged and followed after Kyros as he entered the building. Kyros dragged himself over to the nearest seat and slumped into it, regardless of its normal occupant. He surveyed the group already present and found Seltic and Maya unsurprisingly absent. Through the milling about, he spotted Tantalus headed his way and prepared himself to end any potential conversation quickly.

Tantalus slowed to a stop next to him and asked the obvious, "Have you heard what this is about?"

Kyros sighed and replied, "No. I don't think anyone knows anything other than that it has something to do with Seltic and the robot."

"Like what? Did he wire it back up and is going to make it dance for us or something?"

Kyros half smiled at the thought but answered, "Like I said, I don't know."

After an awkward silence between the two, the gathering was interrupted by Maya slipping in through her usual door. She ascended the makeshift stage at the head of the room and called for everyone to calm down for a moment. Kyros could tell by her movements that she was uneasy about something, and began to worry about the message that she was readying herself to present.

"I assume that everyone here thinks that I've called this meeting about the mission tonight, but something a bit more pressing has come up, so I'll save that for later."

The room fell silent at her words, everyone paying close attention in expectation. She paused in thought before continuing, "Regarding the robot that we brought back the other day... Seltic... has made a startling discovery." She wrung her hands and swallowed, "Before we begin... I want to warn everyone to remain... calm."

As she stepped gingerly from the platform, everyone began to glance at each other with genuine concern. Kyros pulled himself into a more alert position and intently watched the door that Maya was pointing towards. He found his entire body stiffening as the door swung open, revealing two figures. Despite the intense sunlight obscuring them for an instant, he instantly recognized Seltic, but disbelieved what else he saw.

Before he could register what was happening, Kyros found himself leaping to his feet and reaching for the laser rifle he wasn't carrying, followed moments later by Vladimir. Sissera jumped from her seat and stumbled backwards over a chair and into Kyros' arms. The remaining members shifted in readiness to run as the robot's glowing red eyes came into focus and played across them. It too nervously jerked at their response, and hesitated before being shooed in by Seltic.

Seltic mounted the stage before the robot and looked out over the dumb-stricken crowd. "It's okay, you two, you can sit," he addressed Vladimir and Kyros. The two reluctantly returned to their seats, anxiously eying his companion.

"S-S-Seltic?" Sissera stammered from her forced seat beside Kyros.

"I know this is hard to understand... but I wanted to introduce everyone to Kaplain here," he replied to the group's blank stare. He motioned for Kaplain to pick up where he left off.

Kaplain slowly raised his newly-attached skeletal arm and made a weak waving gesture. "Uh... hello... everyone. Seltic's told me a lot about you."

Stanley spoke up, "I don't get it... is this a trick?"

"Of course not. But, it's a long story. Kaplain, would you like to start?"

The robotic deer avoided his gaze and muttered, "I... don't know where to begin. I guess... I should start by saying that I'm sorry for the trouble I've caused you all." He looked up and found Sissera among the audience and continued, "Especially you, Sissera. I know that no amount of apologies will make up for what I did, but.. I hope you understand that I had no choice."

She remained silent, merely offering a nod. "Th-thank you," he continued. "I also wanted to thank you for freeing me of my tormented imprisonment by Robotnik. And, whoever brought me here from that blasted city.

"I know that this is all very confusing right now... but I do have a large favor to ask of you all. As you are well aware... I neither have the ability nor desire to return to Robotropolis... and I'm certain that my hometown is long destroyed. I have nowhere to go... and I wanted to make a formal request to stay here with the rest of you. I will do whatever you ask of me," he pleaded.

The group continued to stare at each other blankly. After an eternal silence, Maya intervened, "I think that we all understand your situation, and we can't leave you at the mercy of the wilds and Robotnik. Doesn't everyone agree?" No one dared to be the first to comment.

Kaplain looked away and said, "I know how threatening I appear... but I assure you that I am no longer under Robotnik's control. I'm at your mercy... please don't put me at Robotnik's."

Maya once more broke in, "Don't worry about anything." She looked at Seltic and hinted, "Perhaps we should continue this later?"

He replied with a confused expression, before Kaplain interrupted, "I think she's right... let's go."

"I guess..." he said before stepping down from the stage and waiting for Kaplain to follow.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief in unison as Seltic led the crippled deer robot outside, and immediately stared at Maya questioningly. "Maya, what just happened?" Kyros broke the silence.

* * *

"But, how can we trust him?" Kyros stated to everyone.

"Yeah. I mean, he's still a robot," Tantalus added.

"I know, I understand what you're all saying... but I just don't know what to do," Maya answered. "I'm suspicious too, but Robotnik hasn't ever tried something like this before."

"Which makes me all the more worried," Kyros replied. "What if this has something to do with the project going on in Robotropolis?"

"Yeah, you can't dismiss that," Stanley said.

"He seems nice enough," Marcus added. "What's the matter with him?"

Maya placed her hand on his shoulder, and answered, "We don't know. We think Robotnik might be up to something."

"But didn't Seltic and Sissera say he was different?"

At the mention of her name, everyone looked to Sissera. She sat silently for a moment, spaced out in thought before noticing the group staring at her. "Huh?"

"Dear, are you alright?" Maya asked.

"I... don't know."

"Don't worry about anything, I'm sure Seltic knows what he's doing."

"Let's hope so. I don't trust this," Vladimir spoke up.

"I'll speak with Seltic alone later. Maybe he'll be able to shed some light on this," Maya said.

"He'd do anything to keep his pet project around," Kyros added.

Maya cut her eyes to him, but resisted the urge to scold him for referring to Kaplain as a thing. Kyros was right, but even she didn't know what to do. By allowing him to stay, she put everyone at risk, but she could neither find the reason nor heart to throw him out.

* * *

After nearly an hour of deliberation with the others, and aimless thought, Maya had decided that the only way she would be able to reach a decision or gain any comfort would be to speak with Seltic as she had promised. Unlike the past few days where he had kept the doors to his workshop closed and locked, with his secret known she found the main door slightly ajar. The gloomy lighting inside made the room feel more like a dungeon than a lab and repair bay, and she hesitated for a moment before pressing on into Seltic's half of the building.

She found him sitting in a chair across from Kaplain, silently contemplating the situation. He looked up as he heard Kaplain turning to face her, and responded to her concerned face with a frustrated frown.

"I need to talk with you," she said to him before looking to Kaplain with a half smile, "alone."

"I understand," the deer answered her, stepping aside to allow her to enter.

As he shuffled down the hall behind her, she continued, "I've spoken with everyone else, and I think you know how they feel about this."

"They don't know him. He's not going to turn on us and kill us in our sleep. He's a person, not just a robot," he said, returning his gaze to the floor.

"Yes, I know. Like you said, they don't know that. This is all very sudden... I wouldn't expect them to just accept him with no prior knowledge."

He rested his chin on his hand and asked, "So, what do we do?"

"I think they'll be more accepting of him if you can prove that he's trustworthy. I told them that I would speak with you."

"I can't prove it... but I just know. If you would just sit down and talk with him, you would too. He's a person, with no one to turn to."

"I believe you," she consoled him as she walked in front of him, "but do you have anything that I can tell them? Can we trust him while we're gone tonight?"

He looked up and replied, "Well, he's in no position to try anything. None of his weapons work anymore, and I'm running him on a battery right now. He can't stay awake for more than two hours at a time. It's not like he's going to destroy the town, or run back to Robotnik."

"What about Robotnik? Does he know that Kaplain's here?"

"I doubt it. He's only one of millions from Robotropolis alone. That is, unless Robotnik sent him here intentionally to find us."

"Do you think he did?"

"No. Kaplain's radio antenna was destroyed in the explosion. He can't send anything more than about twenty meters without it. I've already checked his body for any other transmitters, just in case he wasn't aware of the plot if there was one. He's clean. Even better, my workshop has lead shielding to keep our radio transmissions secret, so as long as he's still in here, he's invisible to radar and radio."

She listened intently and said, "Alright then. I'll speak with the others before we leave tonight. Just remember that we're counting on you to make sure that everything is secure."

"Don't worry about it," he said to her as she stepped towards the exit. "Kaplain won't do anything."

* * *

"I still don't know what possessed you to leave him alone in the workshop," Sissera muttered to Seltic as they crossed under a low scaffold.

"You didn't seem too eager to stay behind," he replied, barely visible through the intense darkness that filled the outskirts of Robotropolis at night.

She choked on her words. After her experience with him, she had reluctant to return to duty with the others, but the prospect of staying behind alone with him was even less appealing. "I would have at least turned him off or something."

"I didn't want to, because I don't know what might happen. It might kill him, after all."

Maya called to the two from a short distance back, "You two try to keep it down a bit, Marcus thinks he heard a buzzbomber nearby."

Sissera tried to think of something more to say, but after Maya's recommendation she remained silent. Making sound was what attracted Kaplain to her before, and she was in no hurry to repeat that encounter.

"I think we're actually almost there," Seltic said to her to pass on down the line. "I think I see a launch pad just ahead."

"Good, this is exactly where one of the construction sites were. This has to be what he was working on for so long," Maya returned to him.

"What's so special about a rocket launch site?" Sissera asked.

"That's the question," Seltic replied, stepping over a pipe line obstructing their path. "It doesn't make any sense."

The complete lack of nearby activity was beginning to worry Maya who asked Seltic, "Is there a rocket on the pad? There doesn't appear to be anyone around."

He paused and scanned the obscured launch pad before answering, "Yeah, actually I think there is."

Maya pulled Marcus close and wound her way past Sissera and Seltic to get a better look at the structure. The enormous skeletal launch rack rose into the sky, tethered to the surrounding buildings through innumerable support lines and power cables. An enormous rocket stood silently on the pad, defenseless to anyone who happened upon it.

"Now what?" Marcus asked her.

"I don't know, dear. I'm hoping that Seltic can figure something out."

The tenrecs slipped up to them and stared upwards at the launch site. "Let's hope so," Seltic said before stepping closer. He strolled a short distance around the rocket, and added, "It looks pretty standard on the outside, but it is a bit odd."

"What do you mean?" Sissera asked.

"Well, these aren't normal rocket engines as far as I can tell. Normal rockets use a mixture of chemicals to burn and produce thrust, but this rocket doesn't appear to be large enough for that." He pointed up to the rocket and continued, "You'd normally see several booster sections, and large engines on the bottom stage. But this is all a single stage, and has small engines."

"So...?" Maya asked, trying to make sense of the situation.

"It could just be more advanced than any rocket I've seen, or could just be specialized for something. Without seeing its payload I don't really know much more."

"Can you tell anything from looking at it?"

He stared up at the tip of the rocket and shook his head. "It's hard to tell. It could be a missile, especially given its size. But, if the other launches have anything to do with this one, it's probably a space rocket. Whatever it's sending into space has to be somewhat small though."

Maya sighed and looked around for any signs of activity. "Alright then, I guess we have no choice but to look inside. I'll stay down here with Marcus to keep an eye out for anything. See if you can find a way up inside." She looked over to Sissera and continued, "See if you can find an access hatch or something down here."

Seltic grumbled and looked up at the launch rack. The only way up he saw was a ladder, and he was terrified of heights.

* * *

"It's been a long time since I've seen this place," Stanley said to Tantalus as the two carefully made their way down the vacant halls of the holding cell wing.

"I know... it's creepy here. I'd hate to be stuck in one of these cells."

"I'd rather be in here right now than back out there with Kyros and Vlad," Stanley continued, peering around a corner. After discovering that the holding cells were right next to the launch pad that his team had been assigned to investigate, Kyros sent Stanley and Tantalus in to search through the cells and stay out of his way. Robotnik rarely had many people in the cells now, with newly captured victims normally being roboticized immediately.

"I guess so," the squirrel responded as he followed Stanley down the dimly lit halls through the complex. "Do you remember the way out of here?"

"Sure, but we've still got a few halls left to look through."

Tantalus was beginning to regret following him into the ominous building. He could already picture himself being run down by SWATbots and thrown into one of the very cells that he was walking past.

"You'd want someone to come bust you out of here if you were stuck in one of these jail cells, wouldn't you?" Stanley joked.

"Yeah, I guess," he replied, nervously checking behind him for any sign of robots or security cameras.

They both jumped at the sound of something scuffing against the concrete floor just ahead. After confirming that the sound was coming from one of the cells ahead and not from a security robot, Stanley hurried off towards the source. "Stay here and keep an eye out," he told Tantalus.

The porcupine jogged down the hallway towards the cell, slowing to an abrupt halt as he passed an occupied cell. He glanced into the cell, and his jaw dropped slightly.

"What?" Tantalus nervously called to him. His question was met with a feeble gesture for him to approach. He lowered his laser rifle and after a final search for security, he raced to Stanley's side. As he reached the cell, he dropped his weapon with a loud clack of plastic against concrete.

From within the cell, a teenage female chipmunk sleepily stared back. Even through her grime-matted fur and unkempt hair he recognized her face. He studied her familiar blue eyes for a moment longer before stammering, "P-Princess Acorn?"


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

_The next morning_

_8:34 AM_

Dr. Robotnik stared blankly at the text scrolling across his computer screen, pretending to care about the security report. The progress made on his project had exceeded his expectations, and he could scarcely take his mind off of the approaching stages. None of the foolish few who resisted him would see it coming, and could do nothing to stop him once it began.

He snapped out of his daydreaming with a growl as the electronic lock on the door behind him began to blurt a notification. "Who is it?" he groaned.

"It's me, sir," Snively's voice crackled through the static-filled speaker.

Robotnik scowled and pressed a button on his desk to open the door. He whirled around in his great metal chair to find Snively uncharacteristically storming into the room with a folder overflowing with papers. "Yes... Snively?" he asked, trying to remain calm. Cluck emulated its master by scowling at the small man before them.

"Sir, something has to change! Look at this," he exclaimed, showing his uncle the first picture from the folder.

Robotnik made out the image of a blue-furred echidna staggering under the impact from a SWATbot's laser projector. He raised an eyebrow and asked, "Yes, so?"

"That particular echidna managed to survive a direct hit from that beam and make it back out of the city with little trouble. That echidna has been in the city nearly half a dozen times in the past week or so, and is almost single-handedly responsible for the SWATbot losses and spying we've sustained over that time."

"So, this little one is giving us all of the trouble..."

"Yes, sir, but that's not the main reason I'm here. If you'll look through the files you'll also see scores of instances of the SWATbots being easily out gunned, out maneuvered, and simply outclassed. Meanwhile, the roboticized security guards and even ordinary workers that have been in combat situations have performed significantly better."

Robotnik put the picture away and returned his piercing gaze to Snively. "And?"

"Sir, it's just that I think the SWATbots are very well over due for an upgrade. The roboticized soldiers are evidence enough that we have the means to make them much better combatants. I've already prepared a few plans and schematics, as well as AI upgrades for you to approve. With your blessings I'd like to get started on the work as soon as possible."

He mulled over the thought for a second and replied, "Very well. Do whatever it takes so long as it doesn't interfere with the project."

Snively blinked and swallowed, surprised at the ease of his approval. "Thank you sir, I'll get right on it." He opened the folder and sifted through the pictures before continuing, "But one last thing." He handed the picture of a vacant cell, followed by one of a porcupine and squirrel.

"And what is this?" Robotnik asked, growing impatient.

"This was the location of the princess, sir. They've taken the bait, as you expected."

"Ah, then I suppose the hedgehog has run off back home with her in tow? The fool."

Snively swallowed hard, "Not exactly sir. The two pictured here showed up first... and made off with her last night."

His uncle exhaled loudly and said, "Well, at least we'll know where they ran off to, even if it's not the hedgehog it's something."

"Actually sir," Snively continued, preparing for an unpleasant response, "I wanted to ask your permission to increase the security in the holding cells area... I... didn't discover that she was missing until this morning when I went to put the tracking device on her."

"So she's gone, and we have nothing to show for it?" Robotnik asked, his voice rising to a worrying tone. Cluck let out a low hiss and glared at Snively.

"Well... yes, sir, I'm afraid so."

Robotnik handed the picture back to Snively and pointed to the door with a sneer. "Very well then... do what you must, but leave me to my work. I don't intend for this setback to delay the project any longer than it has to."

* * *

Kyros was beginning to feel a distinct dislike for the cafeteria, having been to meeting after meeting over the past few days. He flinched at the familiar grating sound of the main door sliding open as he pulled its handle, and blinked to adjust his eyes to the interior lighting. In the typical meeting area, he saw the figure of Maya conversing with someone.

He quickly recognized her as the chipmunk that they had rescued the night before. After she had showered and cleaned herself up, she felt much more familiar, but the last time he remembered seeing the princess was over five years ago on TV. The princess didn't appear on television that often, and even then she would have been preteen when he last saw her. He glanced across her face, registering a certain familiarity to her. Everyone else seemed convinced enough that she was who she claimed to be.

Maya directed a prideful smile to her and pointed at him. "I'm sure you remember Kyros from last night. We couldn't get by out here without him."

The princess stood from her seat on the table and offered her hand with a smile. "Glad to meet you, Kyros. I do appreciate your help."

He took her hand and gave a skeptical shake. "Don't think anything of it, Princess Acorn."

She smiled and replied, "Oh, there's no need for that, just call me Sally."

He gave her a curious look, but neglected to comment. "What exactly did you want me for again?" he asked Maya.

"Nothing much, I just wanted for you to meet the princess here, and to discuss if your team managed to learn anything last night. It was all a bit hectic after we got back."

Kyros looked between the two and answered, "Well, no, not really. I wasn't expecting to find the princess here, and so our search was cut a little short."

"Search?" the princess asked.

Maya answered, "Oh, didn't you know about Robotnik's latest project?"

"You mean the rocket launches?"

"Yes," Maya continued.

"Well, we know that Robotnik has been working on building a large number of space rockets, but didn't learn about them until a few days ago when they started flying overhead. We were snooping around in Robotropolis when I was captured."

Maya asked, "We? Who else were you with?"

Sally looked at her in disbelief for a moment before continuing, "Uh, well, have you heard of the Knothole Freedom Fighters?"

Kyros unfolded his arms and replied, "Of course, who hasn't?" Anyone who had been into Robotropolis a few times would be familiar with them. Of all the resistance groups that tried to feebly repel Robotnik, the Knothole Freedom Fighters were his most hated foe. They had defeated more of his schemes and caused him more trouble than any other.

"I'm one of them!" she replied energetically.

"Are you serious? You know Sonic?" he asked.

"Of course! We've all been close friends since before the beginning of this tragedy."

Maya stood from her seat and exclaimed, "We had no idea! You must know more than we do about this then. We really must discuss everything together, I'm sure there's so much that we can learn from each other."

Sally smiled and said, "Sure." She looked around and asked, "Are you two the ones in charge around here?"

Kyros smirked. "Yeah, sort of."

"Yes, yes, but there's no need to get into all of that now. I want to you show to everyone first, we can discuss everything tonight over dinner," Maya pleaded.

* * *

Maya rounded the corner of the dirt path before the three to face the majority of Armadi. "Stanley is the one who found you first. I'm not sure how you normally handle missions, but we tend to send him off on his own, or just ahead to scout out for us. He's a good guy, but sometimes he can sort of rub you the wrong way."

"You can say that again," Kyros added.

Maya butted-in, "Anyway, he's not here right now. He took Marcus and Vladimir fishing with him today."

"I can't remember the last time I've taken a day to just enjoy life," Sally said, following Maya and taking a moment to look over the buildings sprawled through the valley floor.

"It does get a little hectic at times, and it's hard to really relax with Robotnik around," Maya responded. "But, it's good to know that we're doing something about it, which is why I want to introduce you formally to a couple of hard working tenrecs that make life possible here."

"Seltic? I think I remember hearing you speaking with him last night when you brought me here," Sally asked.

"Yes, and his sister Sissera. He's the only one who knows how to repair all of our computers and such, and she manages all of our medical supplies."

As they reached the large double-building that served as their homes and workplaces, Maya veered off towards Sissera's half. Her door was slightly ajar, and her preference of bright lighting was spilling out into the overcast environment.

"I believe that somebody's home," Maya said to her guest, sliding the door open. Sissera and Tantalus met their gazes as they stepped inside, squinting through the brightness.

Sissera finished placing a gauze patch across a red gash across the squirrel's arm before saying, "Oh, I wasn't expecting anyone. Do you need something?"

"No, no, I just wanted to formally introduce the princess to you. With everything going on last night we didn't really have a chance."

Sissera put her tools down and stepped forward, offering her hand. "Alright then. I'm Sissera Tregenoas, it's a pleasure to meet you Princess Acorn."

Sally took her hand and replied, "Likewise. Just call me Sally, I'm not really much of a princess anymore."

Tantalus eagerly jumped down from the table and offered his hand as well. "The name's Tantalus Gray. We're honored."

She shook his hand and chuckled. "Please, I'm just like everyone else." She looked at the wound on his arm and asked, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, I just hurt myself like an idiot while unloading some things leftover from last night. Are you okay? I'm sure being held prisoner by Robotnik is no picnic."

"It's not the first time I've been there. Thankfully he didn't do anything to me, I suppose he assumed that Sonic was going to save me before he would have the chance." She looked at Maya and Kyros again before continuing, "But again, I am grateful for your help."

"It was nothing, we're naturally always willing to help anyone in need," Maya pridefully said to her.

"No kidding, wait until you see who else we've picked up recently," Kyros added with a smirk.

As Sally questioned the statement with her facial expression, Maya said, "We're going to go see Seltic now, do you two want to come? We'll all meet up again tonight to discuss things over dinner."

"I've still got a lot of work to do, so I'll just catch up with you later," Tantalus replied.

Sissera shut off an overhead lamp and answered, "Well, I'm done here, so I guess I'll tag along."

* * *

"Right through here," Maya said to her company as she depressed the handle to open a door in front of them. The white lighting from Sissera's side of the building spilled into the pitch blackness of the hallway bridging the two halves. Maya fumbled with the adjacent wall to find a light switch, and commented, "Don't mind the mess, Seltic's not that organized."

Sally offered a chuckle in response before following her into the newly lit hallway. Maya cautiously opened the doorway across from them, sidestepping a pile of assorted machinery placed on rags to offer minor protection to the floor. She stepped inside and called into the catacomb-like maze, "Seltic? Are you there?"

A faint hum of light electrical motors could be heard approaching them from an unseen room, followed by a distinct intercom-like voice answering, "Mrs. Morceaux? Seltic's outside looking for something, what do you need?"

"Nothing much, I just wanted to introduce you two to someone."

"Oh yes, Seltic did mention that you'd found someone last night in Robotropolis. He didn't tell me much else though," the voice continued, growing louder.

Kaplain appeared from the large maintenance room to their left, with large portions of his metallic skin removed, exposing mechanics and fiber optic wiring. He stopped in front of the group and strained to look past Maya at their guest. "Who have you brought?"

The mink stepped aside to reveal Sally, replying, "Do you recognize her?"

Sally took a glance at him and jumped back with a gasp. She instinctively searched the room for the nearest exit, backing away from him before Kyros' hands stopped her.

"Whoa, there. He's not going to hurt you," he reassured her, despite his personal feelings. He knew better than make a scene in front of them at the moment.

"Sorry to scare you like that," Kaplain added. "These good people here rescued me from Robotropolis not too long ago."

Sally took a moment to calm down before offering her hand customarily. "Nice to meet you, Mr..."

"Daubach. Kaplain Daubach," the deer answered, taking her hand and studying her face closely. "You know, something about you does seem familiar, but it's been so long..." He paused for a moment more before squinting in thought. As if struck by lightning, his eyes snapped open and he stepped back. "Princess Acorn?"

She nodded modestly. "Just call me Sally."

"But, how is this possible? Weren't you in Mobotropolis when Robotnik started the coup?"

She looked away, shunning painful memories. "I was lucky that I had such resourceful friends, we managed to escape to safety. Ever since I've been leading a band of Freedom Fighters against him."

"We found her in a cell in Robotropolis last night," Kyros explained.

Kaplain nodded and said to Sally, "Then you are very lucky... being roboticized is indescribable."

She replied, "I know. I've seen it too many times... we've all had to see our roboticized parents and siblings working in Robotropolis." She fought back a tear and trailed off, "Daddy wasn't as lucky as I was..."

"The king? Is he in Robotropolis?" Kaplain asked.

She nodded weakly without comment. Sissera picked up, "Yeah, he's one of Robotnik's advisers. We've only seen him a few times over the years."

Kaplain said, "Oh, I see. I'm sorry princess."

"That's okay," she replied. "At least he's not dead... I've tried to come to grips with it."

Kyros cut in, "Wait a minute, if Kaplain could be brought back to normal, then couldn't the king?"

Sally sighed and said, "We've tried. We know it's possible, because we've managed to do it with Sonic's uncle Chuck. He's a spy for us in Robotropolis, and has been a huge help. But, even with his help we've never been able to get close enough to daddy to try to help him."

"Help who?" the group heard Seltic blurt out from the servicing facility that Kaplain appeared from. He strolled into the crowded room and glanced at Sally. "Oh, Princess Acorn, I didn't realize that you were here."

"Mrs. Morceaux here was showing me around and introducing me to everyone," she said, offering her hand once more. "You must be Seltic, just call me Sally."

He accepted her hand and replied, "It's an honor, princess." Responding to her disapproving expression, he said, "Oh, sorry. Anyway, didn't I hear you say something about restoring someone who's been roboticized?"

"It's a long story, but yes. He came to his senses when his nephew Sonic was in danger."

Seltic grinned. "Then I was right!"

"What do you mean?" the others asked in unison.

"I just think that I've confirmed the reason that Kaplain overcame the mind control. It all seems to be mental stress, if you witness or experience something too intense, like dieing or seeing someone love in danger, the roboticization's mind control fails."

"We kind of knew that already," Kyros added.

"Yes, but that means that I haven't been wasting my time," he replied before motioning for them to follow him back into the spacious room he had appeared from. The group filed into the room, noting the dozens of schematics and images playing across the computer screens lining the walls. An immense diagram of Kaplain's head filled the screen along the far wall, highlighting a section of components within his metallic skull.

"This reminds me a lot of Rotor's workshop back home," Sally broke the silence. She smiled and continued, "You two should meet sometime."

Seltic chuckled and replied, "I try, but there's only so much you can do with the things that Robotnik throws out."

Kyros stopped in front of a computer screen and said, "Man have you been busy, what's all of this mean anyway?"

"I was just getting to that," Seltic answered. "It's probably a little hard to tell, but this screen shows an anomaly in Kaplain. At first I thought that he was able to overcome the mind control because he was extraordinarily strong-willed, but after analyzing him further I'm not so sure." He pointed to a spot on the diagram and continued, "For whatever reason, this part of his brain wasn't roboticized correctly. It could have been a glitch, or possibly a natural defect."

Kaplain frowned as best he could with half of his face missing. "Go on."

"Well, I thought it might be the source of his ability to return to normal, so I studied it and found that there is an unstable series of electrical signals that move through that area. With a little work, I managed to pinpoint the source, and figure out exactly what part of his brain wasn't functioning properly.. With that in hand, I began work on this," he said, grabbing a pair of button-like devices from the table.

"What are they?" Sissera asked unnecessarily.

He raised them to eye level and answered, "I don't really know what to call them yet, but when finished, they will produce very intense electrical fields much like what I saw in Kaplain. With a little luck they might be able to instantly snap anyone out of the mind control."

Sally perked up and took a closer look. "Amazing, we tried to build something of this nature before, but never had anything to work from. We've been wasting our time trying to build a deroboticizer instead. We haven't made much progress."

He sighed and placed them back onto the counter. "I'm still not that close to finishing it, and as far as I know it may not work at all, or could even kill their user. But then again, what else am I going to do with my time?"

Everyone offered a smile or chuckle, but failed to comment further. Eventually, Maya broke the silence by saying, "Well, we can discuss all of this later tonight. Princess, would you like some tea?"

"That sounds nice," she replied politely. "Nice to meet you all."

* * *

Throughout the rest of the day Kyros had made it a point to steer clear of Maya and the princess. A lot of work remained to be done with preparing for the mission that night, and after Tantalus hurt his arm things would take even longer. After several hours of dragging crates and supplies, the smell of food grilling was irresistible. He normally didn't care for seafood of any sort, but since the freezer didn't work well the fish that Stanley brought back had to be eaten immediately. Some people didn't eat meat, since the wild animals of the world were so closely related to them, but Kyros just didn't like fish.

As he helped Tantalus force a final bag of equipment into the cargo space beneath the hover craft, the squirrel asked, "So, is the princess staying here or what?"

Kyros brushed off his hands and replied, "She claims that she leads another freedom fighter group, with Sonic himself. I'm guessing that we're taking her home on our way out."

"Sonic? Wow, I'd like to meet him."

"Yeah, if she really knows him."

Tantalus stood up straight and stretched. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"How do we know that she's really the princess? I mean, it's been half a decade since any of us have seen her, and even then not in person. Sure, she looks like the princess, but what are the odds?"

"I know, but she seems authentic. What good would it do her to lie anyway?"

Kyros stepped towards the twilight pouring into the garage through the open vehicle door and said, "Maybe she thought we'd only take her in if we thought that she was the princess. I don't know, maybe she's even a robot spy sent by Robotnik?"

"I don't think so. That doesn't really seem to be what Robotnik's up to right now. Besides, do you have any reason to think she's out to get us?"

"No, not really. But I guess we'll have a chance to find out in a minute," Kyros replied, spotting Sissera hanging out of the cafeteria door and motioning for them to come eat.

The two casually walked the short distance to the cafeteria, halting the conversation in case Sally was close enough to hear them. Kyros groaned as an arctic wind rolled through the town, and tightened his coat. "I hope Seltic got the heater fixed," he murmured to Tantalus.

"I doubt it, he's probably been working on Kaplain all day again," he replied as he reached for the door.

The lack of jackets and coats on the rack beside the door answered Kyros' question, and he noticed the red-hot glow of a spare pair of space heaters in the middle of the cavernous room. As the two found their typical places along the table, he overheard Maya apologizing to the princess about the spartan conditions.

He was preparing himself to ask if the food was ready when Stanley barged into the room with a plate of fried sliced potatoes. The sound of metal scraping against the concrete floor was soon followed by Kaplain lugging a much larger pan filled with fried fish. The two sat their trays onto the table and stepped back.

"How's the arm holding up?" Seltic asked Kaplain.

The deer lifted his arm and demonstrated its mobility before answering, "Great. It's taking a little getting used to though."

Seltic smiled and turned to Stanley. "The fish smells excellent, I can't wait."

"I wish I could taste it," Kaplain added. "I guess I'll just stand back and get something if anyone needs it."

Amid the confusion, Maya stood from her seat and tried to quell everyone. "Alright everyone, calm down for a second. Before we begin, I just wanted to remind everyone that we are heading out tonight. First to try and do anything we can in Robotropolis, and second to take Sally home," she said, directing her hand towards the princess.

Sally smiled meekly and said, "Thank you, everyone."

"Okay then, everyone enjoy the food. As soon as we're done we'll discuss the mission further."

* * *

As Kaplain and Marcus removed the last empty plates from the table, Maya spoke aloud, "If everyone's ready, I think we should go ahead and go over everything."

The others broke from their conversations and silently looked back. After a brief silence, Kyros answered for everyone, "Go ahead."

She clasped her hands together and said, "Alright then. Before I get to the mission itself, I wanted to ask you, princess, what you have learned about the situation."

Sally swallowed and perked up, not expecting to be put in the spot light. She took a deep breath and started, "Well, not much really. Like I said before, we only just discovered that Robotnik was planning anything. How did you find out so early?"

Maya looked over to Kyros with a playful scowl. "Kyros nearly burned the town down, and we had to go into Robotropolis to find out if Robotnik noticed the fire. When we got there, we found out by searching through the computer system."

Sally nodded and said, "I see. We didn't even know about it at all until he started launching rockets day and night. Normally we wouldn't be concerned over one or two, but with the sheer number we decided that it was best to find out their purpose."

The discussion was interrupted by Kaplain noisily dropping a stack of dirty plates back onto the table. He stared blankly for a second before snapping to and questioning, "Did you say... rockets?"

Sally raised an eyebrow and replied, "Yes. Dozens launched over the past few days."

"Do you know something?" Kyros asked, becoming genuinely interested.

Kaplain stood up straight and raised his hand to his temple. "Yeah, I think so. I'd completely forgotten about it until now though. When I was still in Robotropolis, I was normally stationed as security for the factories."

"Go on," Kyros urged.

"Well, the last place I was ordered to guard was a factory that was building a rocket. I was there for at least a week, and I remember some about the design."

"What details do you remember? Anything about the payload?" Seltic asked.

Kaplain thought momentarily and replied, "I don't have a clue what most of the parts were, but I do remember that the engines and overall design were supposed to be revolutionary somehow. I remember seeing something about them being nuclear powered, and being reusable."

"That sounds right," Sally cut in. "We found one of the rockets still in Robotropolis before I was captured, and Rotor, our tech-specialist, said that he'd never seen anything like them before. He said that they looked like they were supposed to be launched and recovered after falling back to the surface."

Maya puzzled over the information and asked, "But, why?"

Sally shrugged and raised her palm to Kaplain, asking him the same question.

"Sorry, I just don't know. The only glimpse of the actual satellites that I got was brief. They just looked like different kinds of telescopes or something."

"Could be a GPS upgrade or the like," Seltic offered. "But why such a level of security and secrecy over that, I haven't a clue."

"Did your team find out anything?" Maya asked Sally.

She shook her head and replied, "No, I'm afraid not. They may have by now, but not before I was captured."

Maya sighed and continued, "I was afraid so. Well, since we don't know anything more than we did a few days ago, I suppose my original mission plan remains."

"Which is?" Kyros asked impatiently.

Maya glared at him and replied, "That we're going back into Robotropolis to sabotage the missile launches, if we can't learn what they are being used for. We can't afford to waste any more time snooping around without acting."

Vladimir grinned and said, "It's about time." Kyros and Tantalus eagerly agreed with nods.

"We're going to split up again and hit several locations at once. With any luck, we can destroy several of the rockets or launch pads. Any other targets of opportunity are fair game, as always." She met eyes with Kaplain and said, "We're taking you too. Your knowledge of the security and such should be a huge help."

His eyes opened widely and he stammered, "O-okay."

Kyros cut his eyes to him and asked, "What's the matter?"

"Sorry, I'm just not in any hurry to go back, too many painful memories. But, like I said before... I'll do anything you ask."

Maya glanced to the princess and said, "We would love to have you come with us, but I'm sure you're ready to go home. So, when we leave tonight, we're more than willing to take you back to Knothole. All you have to do is show us where it is."

Sally smiled and replied, "Thank you, I appreciate it."

"Okay then, if no one has any questions or comments, you're all dismissed. We'll be leaving in two hours, so if everyone could be ready and assembled by then, I'd appreciate it."

* * *

Kyros finally began to feel the grogginess of riding for two hours through the treacherous forest lift as the hovercraft slowed to a halt. Princess Sally had been somewhat reluctant to reveal the location of Knothole to them all, given the possibility of Robotnik capturing and torturing it out of one of them, but after a little diplomacy by Maya she agreed. After all, she knew the location of Armadi, and in his eyes it was only fair.

His doubts about the princess' claims began to fade as he caught sight of a number of wooden buildings through the narrow vision slit in the vehicle's door. At the sound of the lumbering machines lurching to a halt in the middle of the village, lights began to flicker on in various windows. He grasped the heavy metal handle to the sliding door and forced it open, preparing to step outside as he saw the princess eagerly entering the passenger cabin from the cockpit.

"After you," he offered, motioning for her to step outside.

She accepted the offer and jumped down, her boots landing on the soft grass with a mild crunch. Kyros stepped out after her, surveying the fog choked darkness. He heard the distinct creak of old doors creaking open a short distance away, followed by the murmuring of people unseen. A peculiar thunderous boom echoed through the village, prompting Kyros to jump backwards and draw his rifle.

An instant later a deep blue blur flashed by, halting in front of the two. Kyros blinked to refocus his eyes, and felt his body grow weak as the hazy image condensed into a hedgehog. The hedgehog's cocky gaze met his own before falling to Sally's.

The hedgehog ran over to and hugged her before saying, "Sal! We got worried when we couldn't find you in Robotropolis." He released her and looked back at Kyros, asking, "Who's this dude?"

She chuckled and answered, "This is Kyros, his friends rescued me."

"Hey bud, thanks for the help, but I was already on the way to save her."

"S-Sonic?" Kyros heard Maya ask from the hovercraft.

"That's the name, and who are you?" the hedgehog replied, raising an eyebrow.

Kyros swallowed and tried to recollect himself. "It's really you?"

Sonic impatiently replied, "Yeah, what's the big deal?"

Sally interrupted, "These people are freedom fighters too, and they've heard of you."

"News spreads quickly, especially if you're Robotnik's mortal enemy," Kyros added. "You're a legend."

Sonic smirked and replied, "I don't know about that, but anyone who hates old Blubberbolts is a friend of mine." His eyes played across the growing crowd filing out of the two hovercraft parked in the middle of the village, and he asked, "Jeez, how many of you guys are there?"

The group began to make their way towards Sonic, varying levels of excitement growing within them. Kyros suddenly found his friends matched in number by the surprised and curious other inhabitants of the village, who had finally crept up to the escalating excitement.

"Sally girl, you're back!" a partially roboticized female rabbit exclaimed before embracing the chipmunk.

"Aunt Sally, I was so worried about you!" a young two-tailed fox shouted, joining the two.

"I know, I'm going to have to be more careful next time," Sally consoled the two.

At the rear of the group, a coyote sporting an old and worn royal guard jacket approached, followed by an overweight purple walrus. The coyote picked up his pace as he caught sight of the princess, and much to Sonic's dismay shouted through his thick Mercian accent, "Iz that the preencess? Who iz this that brought her back?"

Sonic sneered and replied, "Chill Antoine, I'm handling this."

"Everyone chill out, including you," Sally added. She took the imaginary stage between the two groups and turned to face the villagers. "I think a formal introduction is in order," she said, raising her hand towards Kyros and Maya. "This is Kyros and Maya, the leaders of the freedom fighter group that rescued me from Robotropolis. They've been fighting Robotnik for almost as long as we have."

She stepped back towards them, and pointed at Seltic and his sister. "This is Seltic, and his sister Sissera," she directed to her friends, moving down the line. "Stanley, Vladimir, and Marcus," she continued as she passed them. "Tantalus," she said, walking past the squirrel and approaching Kaplain. "And, Kaplain," she said at last, halting next to him.

"He iz a robot!?" the anonymous coyote voiced.

"Yes, a bit like Bunnie," Sally replied. "Don't worry, he's not going to bite."

"Amazing," the walrus added.

The fox clung to the blue hedgehog, and whimpered, "Sonic?"

"Don't worry little bro," he replied. "I think Sal knows what she's doing."

Sally walked over to the two and said, "It's okay Tails, he's been through a lot, but he's a nice guy."

"My stars, I can just imagine," the rabbit said.

Sally turned to Kyros and placed her hand comfortingly on the fox's head. "Everyone, as you've probably figured already, this is Sonic, and his friend Tails." The group stared on intently, but remained still.

"This is Bunnie, who we rescued during roboticization," she told them, resting her hand on the rabbit's robotic shoulder.

Kaplain turned grimmer and whispered, "Man..."

"This is Antoine, son of General D'Coolette," she said as she passed the coyote. He turned his head slightly and crossed his arms, cutting his eyes to Kyros and his group.

"And, last but not least, Rotor, our technical expert," she said, raising her hand to the walrus.

After the introductions ceased, the two disparate groups instantly moved together. The various members each exchanged greetings and handshakes, and curiously examined one another. Bunnie, Rotor, and Kaplain formed a tight knot, examining each other and conversing. Sonic, Kyros, and Maya grouped together, and Marcus and Tails instantly introduced themselves.

"Hey Sonic, where's Rosy?" Sally asked him after a moment.

"I dunno, probably still in bed," he replied from the middle of his group.

"Okay, I'm going to go see if she wants to meet our guests. They're on their way to Robotropolis, and might be interested in some refreshments before they set out."


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Robotropolis

1:17 AM

Seltic swallowed the last bite of a home baked cookie and stared longingly into his empty cup, searching for a drop of coffee to wash it down with. He set the cup down, brushed his hands off, and said to his sister, "Wow, that Rosy can bake almost as well as Maya."

"I know, it was so nice of them to let us eat with them before leaving," Sissera replied before yawning loudly. "I wish we could have just stayed there for the whole night."

"I'm not so sure I would have wanted to do that," Kyros interrupted from across the passenger cabin of the hovercraft. "They seemed nice enough, but I get the feeling that Sonic wasn't too keen on us hanging around."

Seltic leaned back in his seat. "I know. He's so different than I would have expected. I think he was jealous of you or something."

"Over the princess? He can keep her, that's a little too high brow for me."

"She's not really much of a princess anymore I suppose, but you're probably right," Seltic replied, checking the reading on his watch. "Either way, we should be arriving soon. The three of us were grouped together, right?"

Kyros nodded and said, "Yeah. The three of us get to have fun skulking around in the main facility tonight. Everyone else is supposed to do what they can about the launches."

Sissera raised an eyebrow and asked, "What were we supposed to do?"

"Beats me. Maya said something about getting any information they need. I guess she means security codes, or spying on Robotnik. I'd have sent Stanley and Kaplain for those jobs, but I don't make the rules."

"I guess she doesn't trust Kaplain enough for something so important, and she likes to keep Stanley on a leash. It does make me wonder what she is going to have them doing though."

"Keep him close I'd wager," Sissera said.

"It's probably better this way. The further away from us he is, the better," Kyros continued, noting an irritated expression on Seltic's face. "If he is a spy, then at least he won't be right next to the roboticizer," he explained with a smirk.

The three flinched as a cloudy blue light flared to life at the front end of the passenger cabin, signifying that they were close to their destination. In unison they stretched and took a deep breath in preparation for the long night ahead.

"Once more into the beast's lair," Seltic muttered dryly.

* * *

Stanley stared down the endless series of streets ahead of his team and slowed to a stop. He scratched his temple and asked Tantalus behind him, "Are we headed in the right direction?" 

Tantalus stared back in alarm. "You mean you don't know?"

"I'm not sure. I thought for certain that the launch pads that I explored with Kyros earlier were in this direction, but I don't see anything up ahead," he replied, searching about for any signs of the massive launch scaffolding that pock marked the horizon the previous night.

"So, we're lost in Robotropolis? You've got to be kidding." Tantalus turned to face Marcus and Vladimir, noting the concern on their faces.

"We're lost?" the raccoon asked.

"No, I recognize some of these buildings," Stanley reassured. "We have to be headed the right way, but I don't see the missile pads. I just don't get it, we should almost be there by now."

"Within seeing distance?" Tantalus asked.

Stanley picked up the trail again, replying, "Yeah, I would think so. They should be just a few blocks ahead, and a few turns here and there. The tops were clearly visible from here last time."

"Remodeling?" the squirrel questioned, eagerly following.

"Could be, but I doubt it," Stanley answered as he strolled around a turn. "What else could you do with a dozen launch silos?"

"Well, this is Robotnik we're talking about. For all we know he could be building a tanning salon or-"

Stanley cut him off with a gesture and motioned for him to take cover beside him within one of the abandoned buildings. He peered down the street to the others and whispered, "You two, over here right now."

Marcus stumbled over himself for a moment in search of any source of concern before bolting towards the cover. Vladimir snapped to attention and hurried after him, his heavy laser rifle braced for any sudden need. Moments after he stumbled through the partially collapsed door, the unmistakable sound of a buzzbomber began to resonate through the empty street. The machine bolted by, its engines thundering loudly and wings screeching in an abnormally high pitch.

As the street cleared and quietened, Tantalus whispered to his comrades, "Wonder where he was going in such a hurry."

Stanley checked the visible street and replied, "I don't know, but I doubt it was looking for us. There's no way it could have spotted someone in hiding at that speed."

"Was it running from something?"

"I hope not, I haven't seen one scared of anything before. The only thing I can figure is that it's either in a hurry to get out of this area, or it's heading to intercept someone."

The group slipped back into the road and cautiously continued along the path. Tantalus glanced back after the robot and asked, "The others weren't anywhere nearby, were they? It couldn't have been heading to get them, right?"

"Yeah, I doubt it. If they've been discovered Robotnik would have sent something closer to intercept, which makes me very curious about where it was headed." Stanley again slowed to a stop under a lone functional streetlight, and examined his possible options. "Maybe we'll see if we can find the launch sites. There may be a launch soon, and it was clearing the area."

"I guess. Which way now?"

Stanley pointed off down another gloomy street and led the four towards their target. "We've got to be getting close now. I'm getting a little worried that we don't see them yet."

"Me too," Tantalus replied, scanning the bleak sky for any signs of more robotic wasps or missile trails.

"I actually think that we should be able to see them directly right around this corner," Stanley continued, pointing towards the near alley branching from the road. He stepped gingerly towards the alley, hugging the shadows cast from a relatively recently constructed building, and peeked around the corner.

Tantalus followed the motions as well as he could, finding Stanley in a confused stupor. Instead of asking the obvious, he instantly turned his attention down the alley. His jaw dropped slightly as if to speak, but he only managed a guttural grunt as his eyes focused on the opening at the end of the alley.

"Wh-what happened?" he finally asked, surveying the immense piles of smashed concrete, twisted and discarded steel girders, and piping.

"It looks like... he demolished everything..."

* * *

The sight of another pair of SWATbot legs shuffling by through an air vent grating removed the final ounce of ease from Kyros' mind. Wandering through the outskirts of Robotropolis seemed safe compared to trying to spy from within the main facilities, where Robotnik himself resided for the majority of his time. It was easy to drift from building to building in the streets, but inside of the massive egg-shaped command center, the only safe streets were the air ducts and sewage lines. And even then, very few were large enough to move around in. 

"So, where are we headed?" Seltic broke the silence as the robot drifted far enough away.

Kyros met his gaze and smirked. "Maya said that any targets of opportunity were fair game, so I thought that we'd satisfy my itch to destroy something important."

"What's in here that's vulnerable?" Sissera whispered.

"Plenty, mostly computers," Seltic answered. "Is that what you had in mind?"

Kyros watched the vent opening for a moment before replying, "Yeah. It's been a few years since I've seen the control room itself, and I can't get the idea of writing my name on everything with my gun out of my head."

"Sounds fun," Sissera commented.

Kyros smiled and popped the vent hatch open. "You bet. Let's go before another bot comes by."

The three slipped from the conduit and sneaked towards a nearby corner. Seltic pressed himself up against the wall and directed to Kyros, "The control room is on the top floor, how are we going to get to it?"

"Take the elevator, of course," Kyros joked before darting from his cover behind the corner and down the connected hallway. He slid to a stop near a pair of large downward chutes built into a grime-soiled wall. "I think it's safest if we go this way," he continued, placing his foot onto the lip of one of the large holes.

"Not much of an elevator," Seltic said, catching up to Kyros. "Doesn't that lead to the garbage system in the basement?"

"That's what I'm hoping for. We'll be able to get close to the elevators without being spotted that way," Kyros said. He pulled himself into the chute and urged, "Let's go."

Seltic and Sissera looked at each other and hesitated for a moment before forcing themselves into the stinking pipes. After an agonizing wait as they slid against the slick and lightly clogged chutes, they found themselves crashing into heaps of rotten garbage with a sickening squish. Seltic pulled himself from the mess with a groan and helped his sister from her own pile of trash.

"I'm going to be sick," she complained.

"Maybe this wasn't my greatest idea," Kyros called to them from a short distance away. The two tenrecs turned to find him standing within an enormous drainage pipe leading away from the collection room. "But, we're down here, so let's go."

They worked their way past the semi-solid garbage and into the pipe, stopping to take a look at the marginally lit pipe network extending into the darkness. Seltic sighed and asked, "Are you sure you know where you're going?"

Kyros hopped down from the pipe into the main chamber and answered, "Actually, I was hoping you did."

Seltic answered Sissera's worried expression by pulling the computer form his coat's pouch. "I don't know off hand, but I can probably find out."

The two crowded around him as he sifted through an untold number of schematics and blueprints collected from years ago. He eventually settled on a layout of the sewage system of Robotropolis, and focused on the command center. The overly crowded image shifted a number of times before settling on a complex series of interlocked tunnels.

"That the sewers?" Sissera asked.

"Yeah. I think I can figure out a path to an elevator shaft with this. The plans are pretty old, but Robotnik hasn't been known to remodel frequently."

"So, which way then?" Kyros questioned, standing and staring into the abyss before them.

Seltic closed the screen on his computer and stowed it under his arm. He stepped forward and studied a sign above one of the countless paths before pointing down the shaft. "This way. The signs are all written in Mercian for some reason, but I think I can figure it out. There are two sewage lines in the facility. This one, and one more right near the cargo loading area." He looked at Kyros and continued, "I take it you intended to sneak onto a cargo elevator while the workers weren't looking?"

"Something like that. We'll have to wing it."

Seltic sighed. "I thought so. Maybe you'd best come up with another plan just in case that doesn't work out. Remember, if we get caught, it won't take Robotnik two minutes to get us in the roboticizer." He pointed at a sign painted on the pipe ahead of them and added, "Anyway, it's this way."

Kyros stared at the cryptic sign and climbed into the pipe after Seltic and his sister. "If you say so."

* * *

Maya shuffled to a stop a few steps away from a debris pile blocking the street, formed from the violent collapse of several adjacent buildings. She looked over the scorched and disheveled lot of shattered buildings and glanced back to her companion. "So, this is the spot?" 

"Yes. I hoped that I would never have to see it again," Kaplain replied in his modulated voice.

"We should move on then. Do you remember where you were working before this happened?"

He stepped forward, his metal hooves clacking loudly against the bare asphalt. "It was up one level, around the final assembly workshop about a block in that direction," he continued, pointing off through a partially collapsed building.

"I was afraid of that," she sighed, "I hope I have the strength to climb up there." She took a deep breath and asked, "How tight was security around here?"

Kaplain stared in the direction he pointed in earlier for a moment before answering, "At the time, things were winding down I believe, so it was getting lax." He grew silent with concentration and said, "I used to be able to hear the radio signals in my head, so I would be able to tell you how it was right now." With a sigh he met her gaze, "But I can't any more. It's too faint to distinguish."

"I'm sure we'll be fine, especially if you know where the patrol routes are," she consoled him. "But, how do we get up there?"

He silently nodded at her remark before nervously saying, "There are dozens of old fire escapes around here, can you manage that?"

She puzzled over the thought and found one of the ladders with her eyes. "I think so."

Kaplain led her over to the ladder and offered, "I can go first and help you up." With her agreement, he mounted the ladder and slowly scaled his way to the next level, ensuring that the weathered metal would not give under his weight. As Maya followed and neared the top he extended his hand.

"Thank you dear," she said to him as he pulled her clear of the ladder and onto the scaffold. Between deep breaths, she huffed, "Okay then, which way?"

Kaplain nervously searched the area with his ears, listening for the distinct sound of metal feet clanging against floors. "This way, I don't hear any workers nearby right now," he answered, motioning towards the corner at the near intersection.

"Do you think that we'll be able to get inside without much trouble?" she asked him as she followed his uncertain footsteps.

He paused at the intersection and listened again. "I honestly don't know. I didn't go inside very often, but I think that we can get on the roof from here. But from there..."

Maya frowned and said, "I guess we'll have to do what we can then."

He nodded and led her around the corner. A string of oddly new looking factories and staging facilities instantly came into view, standing out from their surroundings defiantly as if daring anyone to approach. Kaplain's joints creaked quietly as he tensed at the sight of a small group of workers below. "We're not alone," he warned her.

She stepped towards the guard rail for a better look and sighed. "I figured this wouldn't be that easy. Which way do we need to go?"

Kaplain motioned for her to crouch behind him and whispered, "Just down this catwalk, and step off onto the building. If you stay low, we might be able to just walk by."

Maya agreed and crept along behind him as he tried to leisurely proceed down the path. In his nervousness he walked too naturally, unlike the determined march of other roboticized workers, but managed to avoid attracting undue attention to himself. As they approached the building, Kaplain motioned for her to step back against the wall of the building they stood against. "Let me check ahead, there may be security personnel nearby," he whispered to her, attempting to stand perfectly erect like he would be expected to.

He stepped down the catwalk, carefully observing each alley and branching path as he passed by. At the corner of the building, he jerked to a stop at the sight of another robot appearing from one of the myriad entrances to the factory complex. He waited until the machine was out of sight, and turned to face Maya. With a cautious smile, he waved for her to join him near the building.

* * *

Stanley took a step down from his vantage point atop the sea of debris and addressed his team, "I don't understand. There's nothing larger than a car left intact." 

Vladimir shouldered his weapon and asked, "Is it possible that someone beat us here?"

"I don't think so, nothing looks like it was knocked down by weapon fire. It just looks demolished. Besides, it would have taken a small army to do this kind of damage, and that would have never made it this far into Robotropolis."

Tantalus slowly scanned the horizon and added, "The main thing that scares me is the lack of robots. Other than that buzzbomber, we've seen nothing."

"Destroyed along with the launch pads?" Vladimir insisted.

"It doesn't add up. Nothing looks like there was any sort of struggle or fighting. I don't see any weapon marks, shrapnel, or destroyed robots. It looks to me like Robotnik just ordered the whole thing razed."

"Why?" Marcus asked from atop a small mound of junk.

"I wish I knew."

"Maybe we should keep moving, we might find something," Tantalus added.

Stanley nodded and said, "Yeah, but it'd be suicide to march over the wasteland here. Let's take cover behind the buildings over there."

The group silently agreed and followed him as he deftly made his way through the twisted lake of decimated construction. One by one they filed through the openings towards the relatively unscathed building complexes. Along the way, Stanley broke the silence, "I thought that Robotnik might just be planning to demolish the missile silos if he's done with them, and build something else here. But, that doesn't make too much sense, because if he planned to do that, there would be legions of robots swarming around here right now."

Tantalus raced to catch up with him and added, "Yeah, and there's tons more space for him to make room for new stuff. He might just be trying to confuse us."

"It's not like him to be so elaborate like that. But, at this point I don't know what else it could be. Either way, he's destroyed the launch pads, and there's got to be a reason for it. Even he has to make some sense some of the time."

The four quietly continued along the street across from the previous launch sites, pausing intermittently to examine newly visible portions of the destruction. The complete lack of security continued to unnerve Tantalus, who spoke up, "I think we should get out of here. Something has got to be wrong, and I don't want to be around when-"

Tantalus halted at the feeling of someone urgently tugging at his tail. He turned to see Marcus pointing towards a bright yellow sign, obscured behind a fallen structural beam. Stanley stopped at the sudden silence, and back tracked to the group.

"Allow me," Vladimir offered. He stepped over and placed himself between the beam and building, and used his entire body's strength to shove the beam far enough away for Stanley to read the sign.

"This area condemned by order of Lord Robotnik. All personnel should avoid entering the area until further notice," he read aloud, frowning at the image of Robotnik's grinning face.

"See? I told you something was wrong," Tantalus said. "We should beat it now while we still can."

"I don't know, the sign looks old, and it seems like whatever was going to happen already has."

Tantalus eyed him skeptically for a moment before forcing himself to agree. "Fine, but maybe we should get in contact with the others and see if they've discovered anything that we should know. Kyros is in the main facilities after all, that's his mission."

"Okay, sounds like a good idea," Stanley said before opening his hand towards Vladimir. The badger removed a radio set from his belt and handed it to him. Stanley fiddled with the settings for a second before finding the correct channel, and raised the phone-like communicator to his ear. He flinched and snatched the radio away as it blared static.

"Is that the busted radio?" Tantalus asked nervously.

"No, I don't think so. I'm just not getting a decent signal for some reason. Even in the thick of the city out here we can usually get something," he replied, examining the readings on the radio's digital display. "That's odd, the signal's getting worse as we speak."

Tantalus opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off as he noticed the lighting around slowly changing. Where the city had been drenched in darkness, a mild blue hue was becoming obvious on the walls surrounding them. He studied the glow for a moment, and imagined that the the light was beginning to intensify.

"What on Mobius is that!?" Stanley shouted suddenly, pointing to the sky. Everyone immediately turned their attention to it, marveling at a strange blue light forming. The stars above slowly faded into obscurity as the light blazed brighter, lighting the sky as if it were day. Stanley looked to Tantalus and said, "I think you were right, run!"

The others immediately took off down the street towards an open alley without further request. An incredible hiss of air boiling into a plasma rolled through the city for a moment, followed by an impossibly bright explosion of heat and energy as a lance of light struck the debris from above.

From within the safety of the alley, they avoided the brunt of the blast, but were still thrown from their feet. Showers of semi-vaporized metal and ceramic rained from the air into the alley, before an immense shock wave blew a row of adjacent buildings down to their foundation. The resulting blast pelted them with cement fragments and hurled them down the street into waiting piles of garbage and crumbled structures.

After an agonizing silence and process of pulling himself free of a shattered wooden crate, Stanley stood and clasped his hands around his ringing ears. He weakly questioned, "Everyone alright?"

Vladimir grunted and forced himself to his feet, dropping the crushed remains of his weapon. "I'm fine."

"I'm okay," Marcus added from the middle of a stack of torn trash bags.

Stanley hobbled down the street a few steps and called, "Tantalus? Where are you?"

"Over here," he replied weakly. Tantalus rolled over where he laid, and sat up. He spat out a tooth stained with blood and placed his hand over the side of his face with a cringe. "What just happened?"

* * *

"How can one man need such a sewage system?" Seltic grumbled as he filed along behind Kyros and his sister.

"Don't forget Snively," Kyros jested.

Seltic glowered at him before pulling out his computer once more. He briefly eyed the screen and said, "We need to take a right here."

Kyros silently acknowledged the statement and turned to face a pipe running off from the main route. "How far away are we?" he asked.

"A couple hundred meters, give or take. It's a lot of winding around though."

"Great, doesn't look like we're saving much time after all."

Sissera looked back to her brother and asked, "Is this even any safer than going through the air ducts? I mean, he's got to have robots clean this place out every once in a while."

"Probably. We've only been in here a few times in the years we've been doing this, but I don't think we've ever come across anything down here. It makes me wonder why he even bothers lighting the place."

"Maybe he wants us to come down here," Kyros said. "Could be a trap, you know?"

"Maybe. He's usually a little less subtle than that though," Seltic replied as he sloshed through a puddle of standing sludge. He grunted and added, "It'll take weeks to get the smell out of our clothes."

The other two nodded at his comment but remained silent until they reached an intersection. "Left or right?" Kyros asked.

"Right again. It's a short walk to a treatment station from here."

Kyros chuckled and said, "I wonder if it's been turned on in a decade."

"Probably not," Sissera said, stepping down into the sloped pipe. "What even leads down here? There's got to be more than just Robotnik's plumbing."

"If I had to guess, it's probably mostly chemical plant run off and disposal for anything that's so corrosive he can't leave it around in a drum above ground," Seltic answered. He placed his hand on his chin and added, "Come to think of it, it's probably not a good idea to be standing around in this stuff, or breathing it."

Kyros sighed. "Nice to know that now. But, I guess if we were going to die from this junk it would have happened years ago."

"Yeah," Sissera mumbled. She knew a less appetizing truth about the pollutants, and memories the two-tailed fox that they had met in Knothole kept coming back to her. Even if he had been born too long ago to be affected by this pollution in particular, she knew all too well what it could cause. She also knew that now wasn't the best time to bring it up.

Seltic perked up at the clanking sound of unsophisticated machinery ahead and said, "We must be close. We'll probably have to shut it off to get by, but I don't think that will be a big deal."

"I say we trash it completely. A slime volcano in every toilet in Robotropolis from this mess backing up should give the good doctor something to think about," Kyros added with a smirk. "I should have brought some demolition charges, but I suppose that you can do something with the computer to foul it up, right?" he asked Seltic.

Seltic hopped down from their walkway into the room that housed the source of the noise and shouted over the rumble, "We'll have to see." As his team mates joined him, Seltic casually made his way to an ancient computer system using one of the many walkways above a massive rotating set of stirring blades.

"Well?" Kyros asked.

Seltic flashed him a confused look. "I don't know if I can do anything with this..."

"Is it broken?" Kyros trotted across the same walkway to join his companion. After a momentary glance at the muck covered keys of the computer, he said, "Oh, more Mercian. Why in blazes is everything written in Mercian down here?"

Sissera joined the others, saying, "This must have been here since the palace was built, and I suppose there's any number of reasons."

"Either way, there's no way that I'm going to be able to do anything. I haven't read anything in Mercian since school, and that's been forever ago."

Kyros sneered and glared at the computer. "So, what do we do now? Backtrack and go another way?"

"Maya speaks Mercian," Sissera offered. "She used to live there when she was young, didn't she?"

Kyros blinked. "Wow, I can't believe that I forgot about that. Sounds good though, can we get her on the radio down here?"

Seltic pulled a radio transmitter from his coat pocket and checked a readout. "Amazingly, yeah, I think so. These tunnels must have antennae run through them to allow transmissions. Let me try at least." He keyed in a signal and raised it to his ear.

After a brief wait in silence, a startled female voice asked over the radio, "Wh-what is it?"

"Maya, we need a little help," he responded.

"What do you need?" she asked in frustration.

Seltic leaned back against a guard rail and continued, "We're down in the sewers, and we need to shut off a computer without causing a big commotion. The problem is, everything on it is written in Mercian. I can't decipher it, but I was hoping that you could."

She sighed over the speaker and said, "Okay, but I don't have much time. Read me what's on the screen."

He huddled over the dust stained glass and spoke into the radio, "It looks like an old command shell, this could be difficult. Anyway, it says, 'directoire: C:\, inscrissez'"

After a silence, she responded, "Just what it looks like, directory and inscribe. If you know what that's asking for."

"Yeah, what's the word for help?"

"Could be a lot of things, try aide."

He keyed in the word, which the computer responded to with a string of unidentifiable Mercian words. "No good, what else?"

She took a deep breath. "What about-" she said before being unexpectedly cut off with a surprised cry. Seltic pulled the radio away from his ear in shock at the sounds of an intense struggle ringing from the speaker. His eyes met Kyros and Sissera as her terrified voice continued across the radio, followed by a few short bursts of weapon fire and silence.

Kyros mouthed a curse and met the tenrecs' mortified faces with a command, "Don't just stand there, let's go!"

* * *

Tantalus dragged himself along behind Stanley, trying to ignore the stabbing pain in his face and side. He rubbed his bruised eye and whimpered, "Is the radio working yet?" 

Stanley brushed ash from his singed fur and replied, "No, it's dead. I'm sure Seltic could tell you why, but all I know is that it's toast."

"Well, at least we know why the buzzbomber was leaving. There still don't appear to be any robots around," Vladimir chimed in.

"And why we're leaving the area. If that's going to happen again, I don't want to be anywhere near it. With any luck, we can meet up with Maya and stick with them until we leave," Stanley grumbled.

Tantalus groaned and looked down at his watch, surprised to find the display blank. "Oh man," he managed to speak at last, coming to an unnerving realization. Everyone stopped in their tracks and spun to face him with a look of tired disgust at his news. "I think all of our equipment is dead."

Stanley puzzled and angled his laser rifle at an odd pile of discarded concrete slabs and pulled the trigger. Instead of the normal crack of ionizing air and exploding rubble, the weapon merely clicked and sputtered a spark. "Great. We're deep inside of Robotropolis with no weapons. At least we should be getting close to Maya's position. Kaplain will be able to hold off most anything if he has to."

Tantalus shot him a confused expression. "Did Seltic hook his weapons back up? Maya and Kyros told him not to, didn't they?"

"Beats me, but regardless he's the strongest and toughest one of us out here."

Tantalus fell silent with acceptance and continued to trudge along in the makeshift convoy until Marcus broke the silence.

"How far away was Ms. Maya?" he asked no one in particular.

Stanley looked back slightly and said dryly, "Another dozen blocks or so I think. She was headed towards the factory where Sissera ran into Kaplain. I'm hoping that security is just as lax now as it was then."

Tantalus faked a chuckle and added, "Yeah, we'll probably run into the one robot around like she did." His speech paused for a second as he pushed his way through a hole in a shattered wall. "If Kaplain's with-" he continued before being cut off by throwing himself to the ground at the sound of a laser discharging.

The others immediately followed him to the ground, frantically searching for the source of the weapon fire. Another beam of air plasma shattered a street lamp next to Vladimir, encouraging him to find better cover within the ruins with Tantalus, who had reflexively drawn his ruined laser rifle.

Tantalus drew aim through a long destroyed window and spotted a pair of roboticized goats before remembering the state of his weapon. He prepared to use a grenade in the hopes that it would still detonate, but after a moment of hesitation he saw the robots utterly annihilated by two violet bursts of plasma. Instantly, the sprinting form of Kyros barreled into sight, placing a few laser shots into the devastated remains of the robots.

Kyros stumbled to a stop in the dark street before whirling around to face the combat torn intersection behind him. "Come on you two! We don't have much time!"

Tantalus spotted Seltic and Sissera hustling towards Kyros, steaming plasma guns in tow. He eagerly skipped towards the entrance of the building and into the street, and shouted, "Kyros, over here!"

He was met with three gun barrels aimed at his head for an instant before Kyros lowered his weapon and let out a winded gasp. "Geez Tant, don't do that!"

"Sorry, but we've got some trouble here," the squirrel apologized. "We were almost hit by some sort of super laser thing earlier, and now none of our weapons work. We're on the way to meet up with Maya."

Kyros puzzled and asked, "Your radio must not be working either." After Tantalus' confirmation he continued, "Then get everyone together and follow me, fast. We've got much bigger trouble than guns not working."

* * *

Stanley huffed an exhausted breath as he charged behind Kyros, and found the energy to gasp, "Are you sure about this?" 

"Absolutely, you didn't hear it. Something is definitely wrong," the echidna muttered between breaths.

Seltic panted and added, "I don't understand though. Kaplain should have been right there with her." He gasped for breath and continued, "Unless that was him firing on the radio."

Kyros shot him a murderous look and asked, "What do you mean?"

Seltic slowed slightly to keep pace with Kyros and replied, "I... rewired his weapon mounts. I thought it might help."

"And the idea that he might betray us never occurred to you?" Kyros hissed.

"I removed his lasers and replaced them with charged particle projectors, they only do appreciable damage to electronics."

"Did he know that?" Stanley questioned, catching up.

"Yeah, the only thing he could have done to her is maybe singe her fur or something. He knew that, so I don't know why he would do anything."

Kyros slid around a corner and interrupted the conversation, "Well, forget it, we're close to where she was." The team scurried over the mountain of smashed buildings that marked the battle zone where Sissera met Kaplain. "This is where she was heading. There's no telling where she is though."

He started down the street at the double, and raised his weapon in preparation for the security forces that would certainly be swarming the area. Moments later a blue beam of energy lanced from a window down the street, vaporizing a chunk of the debris pile he stop atop. The robot leaped from the window to the street and broke into a sprint. It managed to draw aim at Kyros before being cut down by a staggering volley of laser and plasma fire.

Kyros led the others down the street without a word, ignoring the ravaged roboticized sheep that twitched spasmodically. He stumbled to a halt and emptied the remainder of his energy clip into a pair of SWATbots approaching. "Security is getting close, something has definitely happened here," he whispered to his comrades, slapping a fresh energy pack into his rifle.

He pointed at a safe ladder and called to Tantalus, "You're on point, see if you can spot anything."

Tantalus swallowed and muttered, "Got it." He shuffled past the others and mounted the ladder. As he prepared to ascend, a deafening crackle from dozens of speakers echoed throughout the streets.

"Would a Mr. Kyros please come to the main assembly facility? His party is waiting for him," a deep and unmistakable voice rumbled.

Kyros felt his stomach lurch. "Robotnik," he growled.

"Yes, it is I, the illustrious Doctor Ivo Robotnik," the voice continued. "It would seem that your friend here, a Ms. Morceaux I do believe, was romping around in one of my prized factories. So, I've decided that I'd turn her into a robot, and give her all of the time she wants in there. But, since I'm a sporting fellow, I'll give you a minute or two to save her if you want to try."

"It's a trap," Seltic warned.

"Of course it is... but it might just be what we need to get her back."

Robotnik finished, "I'll be waiting for you, don't disappoint me."

Kyros frantically searched around for a route to take before settling back on the ladder. "Alright everyone, up. If we hurry there might be hope." He scrambled up to the next level and darted down the catwalk towards the factory complex in the distance.

"Enemy spotted!" a robotic voice blared from the street below. The robot gopher fired a volley of lasers at the group, before being blown from the ground and through a building from a pair of plasma bursts.

Seltic juggled the steaming plasma gun in his hands and whimpered, "I don't know how much longer we can keep this up."

"Come on, or we might not have a chance," Kyros snapped before dashing off once more. He thundered along the thin metal plating and jumped over a flight of stairs to the level below. The clang reverberated across the entire scaffold and through the maze of alleys and streets nearby.

Three more robots dashed from the entrance of the factory into view and raised their weapons. Bolts of laser energy and plasma blasts sizzled past, smashing the wall behind them. Seltic collapsed to the floor with a cry as a laser beam grazed his arm, dropping his gun with a clack. Stanley snatched up the gun and released its charged shot into the knot of robots below, destroying one and hurling the other two aside.

Kyros and Sissera finished the two with a hail of shots before taking the moment to regroup. Seltic rolled over and grasped his burnt arm with a cringe. "I-I think I'm fine," he managed to utter. Sissera crouched beside him and agreed after a cursory examination.

"Get it together, then let's go! Stanley, keep his gun," Kyros directed before taking off again.

Seltic sighed in exhaustion and hefted himself to his feet. He cautiously fell into line behind Stanley and forced himself to continue. "Wait up," he called. The explosion of a SWATbot hoverpod around the corner forced him to his knee, and he scarcely managed to pull himself upright before the pod impacted the ground and detonated with a searing blast of heat.

Kyros jumped back in surprise and raised his rifle as a roboticized deer suddenly appeared from a doorway.

"Wait, it's me!" the deer pleaded, leaning away from the scorched rifle barrel.

Kyros paused in confusion and lowered his weapon slightly. "Kaplain?"

The deer nodded eagerly and stood from his cowering position. "Yeah, I'm glad I found you guys."

Kyros scowled and rammed his laser rifle into the robot's face with a clang of metal against metal, forcing Kaplain to lean backwards over a guard rail. He sneered and hissed, "Where's Maya? Where were you?"

"I-I can expl-" he stammered.

"You'd better!" Kyros cut in.

Sissera broke between the two and shouted, "Come on, we don't have time for this! Maya's in trouble!"

Kyros reluctantly stepped back and allowed Kaplain to talk. Kaplain stood up again and tried to calm himself. "We were on top of the factory before it happened. She was trying to find a way inside, and she told me to keep watch for security. I let her out of my sight for a moment, and the next thing I know... there's a dozen robots surrounding her and dragging her off."

"Why didn't you do anything?" Kyros demanded.

"Believe me, I wanted to! But... there was no way I could have handled them... and I froze."

Stanley chimed in, "Did you see where they took her?"

"Yeah, it's this way," Kaplain replied, pointing off. "If we hurry we might still be able to do something."

"Alright, but I'm not taking my eyes off of you," Kyros added.

* * *

Kyros clumsily slammed into Kaplain as the deer came to an abrupt halt in the center of the roof that they had been traversing. As the remainder of the group shuffled to an anxious stop, Kaplain crouched and looked back. 

"What now?" Kyros demanded before he had a chance to speak.

"They're down there, I think," he responded, pointing towards the edge of the roof. "We should probably all stay low."

Kyros grunted and led the others in crouching and crawling to a better vantage point.. He cautiously peered over the raised edge of the industrial complex roof and rested his laser rifle in a defensive position. A numb feeling instantly flooded through his body like a wave as he swept the sights of the weapon across the legion of robots below. The machines milled around the vast empty space below, overshadowed by the immense command center a few blocks away.

"Robotnik..." he involuntarily hissed at the sight of the monstrous overlander in the center of the crowd atop a raised platform. "Maya!" he said aloud without thought as his eyes passed over a white mink bound at Robotnik's feet.

"Oh man... what do we do?" Tantalus whispered from his new position beside Kyros.

"I'm going to kill that fat egg-headed monster..." Kyros growled, aiming the laser rifle down into the crowd. He stared through the scope and steered the weapon to place the cross hairs on Robotnik's forehead, and tightened his finger around the trigger. At the extreme range, his nervous hand sent the targeting reticle wild. As the scope danced across Robotnik's body, it passed over Maya's face. At the sight of her terror stricken face, he backed away from the sight and dropped the rifle. "I can't make the shot... I might hit her," he mumbled.

"Should I try?" Vladimir asked.

Kyros sank into a sitting position against the raised edge of the roof and answered, "No... it's too risky, and would give away our position."

"What do we do then?" Stanley asked.

Kyros sighed with a blank expression and opened his mouth to speak when the familiar crackle of speakers coming to life interrupted him. "My dear furry friends, if you're listening, then I suppose you should know that you are too late to save your friend. I must admit that I'm a bit disappointed in you, after all, seeing you all cut down by my armies would have been most pleasing. Well, either way, adding this little one to my army is just as pleasing. If only you could have heard her crying out for you... Kyros," the voice of Robotnik spoke over the speakers, before Kyros saw him turn to face their building with a toothy grin.

Kyros jumped to his feet with a growl and aimed his weapon once more at Robotnik. He prepared to empty his energy clip at the monster regardless of the consequences, as Kaplain staggered into him, clutching his ears.

"What's that sound?" he muttered, trying to plug his ears. He stared into the sky and continued, "It sounds like an inferno or something..."

Stanley, Tantalus, Vladimir and Marcus all jumped to their feet in unison. "Coming from the sky?" Stanley asked.

"Yeah, I think.." Kaplain replied.

"Then we've got to get out of here, right now!"

"What?" Seltic butted-in.

"No time to explain, just go!" Stanley insisted, grabbing him and his sister by the sleeves and pulling them along. Vladimir followed by snatching Kyros from his feet and pulling him and Kaplain along. The entire team leaped across a chasm between buildings and sprinted off towards the catwalks they had emerged from minutes ago.

The sound of ionizing air began to fill the air around them, intensifying by the second as they dashed along the roof. Tantalus let out an audible whimper as the dour lighting around them began to be overtaken by a distinct blue-white hue. Without further instruction, each member of the team skipped across the alley onto the catwalks a story below.

Kaplain assisted the wounded Seltic and Marcus across the chasm, and prepared to jump to safety as an incredible beam of energy struck their prior position from the sky. The building exploded with the fury of a power plant detonating, leveling the building he stood on and sending fragments of structural steel and ceramics arcing through the air. The other members suddenly found themselves crashing to the ground as the shock wave and heat from the explosion rocked the catwalks from their supports.

As the debris settled, Kyros pulled himself to his feet and wiped a bloody wound on his leg. He glared at Stanley and asked, "What in the name of Mobius was that!?"

"I don't know," he answered, surveying the status of the others. "But it's happened once before, and could again, let's beat it before it does!"

Kyros hesitated as he watched Kaplain drag himself from the shattered remains of the adjacent building. After the others dragged themselves up and reoriented themselves frantically, he conceded. "Alright... I guess we have no choice."

He gathered everyone's attention and shouted, "Okay everyone, fall back! We're out of here! There's nothing else we can do."


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

_Armadi_

_11:41 AM_

As the hovercraft jerked to a standstill within the hangar, Seltic watched Kyros kick the passenger door open without pause or a word. The echidna stormed out of the hatch and ripped his body armor off, letting the battered and hole-ridden suit of kevlar and metal rest where it clanged to the floor. He felt the urge to speak up, but he had learned long ago from prior experience that Kyros would be better off alone for a while. Without Maya returning, it could be a very long while.

He weakly filed out of the craft after his sister and Kaplain, and carelessly dropped his own equipment pack in a convenient open spot against the wall of the garage. As he and Kaplain stepped outside, Kyros met them at the door.

Kyros glared at the two with a scowl and raised his finger at Seltic. "You two, meet me at the workshop," he said with an eerily cool tone. Without a further word, he stepped off.

"Uh, okay," Seltic stammered after him.

"I think I know what he wants," Kaplain said with a sigh. "He thinks that I betrayed Maya, and I'm sure that he's going to do something about it."

Seltic watched Kyros continue down the path towards Maya's old building and replied, "I know, but he's not thinking clearly right now. I know that you didn't do it, and I'm not going to let him blame you for this."

Kaplain followed Seltic as the tenrec walked out of the hangar and towards his workshop. "It is my fault though. If I had been watching her more closely, this might not have happened."

"Maybe not, but who knows? Maya knew what she was doing, and if there really were that many robots I don't know if you would have made a difference. None of us would."

Kaplain opened his mouth to speak but couldn't find the words. He followed Seltic as he stepped inside of the workshop and flicked the lights on. The light dimly reflected from his soot and dust covered body, reminding him of the battle the night before. "I guess it's just a matter of time before Robotnik gets us all," he spoke at last.

"I try not to think about it," Seltic added. "It's too depressing. I mean, if he was able to conquer most of the world, what good can the few of us do?"

"Plenty," the grim voice of Kyros answered. Seltic jumped and spun to face him with a surprised expression. "I don't plan to give up, not so long as I can still get revenge," he continued, strolling into the room with the same blank expression.

Seltic stepped between Kyros and Kaplain and asked, "What exactly did you want?"

"I think you know. I want Kaplain restrained and deactivated."

"But, I didn't do anything!" the deer pleaded.

Kyros cut his eyes to him and said, "Don't give me that. You were the only one with her when she was captured. How do we know that you weren't the one who handed her over to Robotnik?"

"Why would I? After all you've done for me?"

"Because, that would be the perfect guise for a spy. For all we know, you've given Robotnik our position and he's on the way to finish us off right now!" Kyros shouted.

Kaplain backed away and opened his mouth before being interrupted by Seltic, "Yeah, like you said, for all we know! Besides, that's all circumstantial, what other reasons do you have for believing that?"

"For starters, don't you think that it was convenient that we weren't attacked by any more robots after we ran into Kaplain? Or, how about Robotnik knowing exactly where we were when he fired that laser? How about the convenience of the whole situation? Why didn't Robotnik recover Kaplain's destroyed body and recycle him into scrap? Why was he the only robot around when Sissera fought him? Huh?" he demanded.

Seltic thought for a moment but wasn't given a chance to respond. Kyros stepped over to Seltic and leaned towards his face. "Exactly. I don't care what your excuses are, right now he's too much of a liability. If you don't shut him down, then I'm going to do it with a plasma cannon. You've got your choice."

Kaplain staggered backwards and tried to shake the terror from his face and stuttered, "I-I'll do whatever you want. I'm not a spy or a traitor."

"Good," Kyros directed to him. He looked at Seltic and continued, "I mean it. Don't make me have to do it."

Seltic frowned and nodded. "Fine."

Kyros handed him a computer memory stick and added, "Alright then. After you've taken care of that, I need you to decrypt these files for me. Maya never told me the security key, and I think we're going to be needing all of the information that she's squirreled away that we can get."

* * *

Seltic sighed and looked down to the little-trodden path in front of the recreation room door. He clutched the data stick in his hand and forced himself to pull the handle on the door and confront Kyros. Under normal circumstances, Seltic would be busy working on something personal instead of decrypting Maya's personal files, but after the display Kyros made less than an hour before he decided that it had much higher priority than anything else. 

The acrid smell of cigarette smoke surrounded Seltic as he pushed the door open, followed by the tell-tale white whirls of smoke pouring from the crack in the door frame. He shunned the initial urge to criticize Kyros for his habit, and slipped inside.

Kyros sat on a weight bench braced against the wall to his right. Seltic stepped towards the echidna, taking care to dodge a pile of carelessly discarded cigarette butts. Kyros cut his eyes to him and said, "Don't even think about it."

"What?"

"The cigarettes," Kyros answered, returning his attention to a weight in his hand.

Seltic scratched the itching gauze patch strapped over his arm and innocently replied, "Oh, I wasn't planning on it." He stopped beside Kyros and placed the memory stick on the weight bench. "All done. From the looks of it though, it's mostly personal journal entries. Not a whole lot of useful information."

Kyros dropped the weight into a rotting wooden box and said, "That's fine." He stood with a slump and continued, "As long as it's something."

Seltic puzzled over the comment and asked, "Were you looking for anything in particular?"

"No, just anything. If no tactical information, memories at least. It's going to be hard getting used to her not being around," he replied, avoiding Seltic's eyes.

"We may never get over it, but... it was bound to happen to one of us eventually, you know?" Seltic paused before adding, "I guess it just hasn't hit me yet... I'm trying not to think about it... there's too much to think about now."

Kyros glared at him and said, "How can you say that? What's more important than what happened to her?"

Seltic's eyes grew wide and he stammered defensively, "N-nothing! It's just like I said, there's so much going on right now it's chaos in my head."

"Well, I can't stop thinking about it. There has to have been something I could have done."

"Gotten yourself caught too? You know that there was no way to get close to her. We did all that we could."

Kyros scowled and replied, "But it wasn't enough. I just can't get Robotnik's face and words out of my mind." He growled and said, "One day... I'm going to-" Without finishing his sentence he slammed his fist into the wall, leaving a fist-shaped depression in the soft foam board interior. "Kill him..." he finished.

"And that's why we had to leave! If we stayed it would have been over right then and there."

Kyros glanced at the blood smeared across his knuckles and said, "I just can't believe that you're saying it like that. Didn't Maya mean anything to you?"

"Of course she did! But, what could we do? It was too late when we got there, and there's nothing we can do now!"

Kyros growled and looked away in thought. "Well, I'm not taking this. I'm going to do something, whether you help or not."

"What? She's surely been roboticized by now."

"Remember Kaplain? I'm willing to take my chances to get her back, no matter the risks." He grasped the data stick and added, "And I've got a plan. I'll talk with you later."

Seltic swallowed and nervously replied, "If you say so."

* * *

"Is he actually off?" Sissera asked her brother as she studied Kaplain's comatose body. 

Seltic took a breath and removed his trench coat before answering, "Yeah. As much as he's going to be anyway."

"His eyes are still glowing, is that normal?" she questioned further, staring into the robot's half closed eyes.

"I really wish I knew. I'm afraid to just cut him off, since I might not be able to cut him back on. So, to make Kyros happy I sort of put him in suspended animation. As far as I can tell he's unconscious, but he's still on."

She offered a quiet, "Oh."

"I really wish Kyros wasn't so adamant about this, but without Maya..."

"He's in charge?" she finished for him.

He smirked and nodded. "I guess so. Heaven knows I wouldn't want the job, but I was talking with him earlier... well, actually he was more lecturing me than anything, and I'm not so sure that he can think clearly enough right now."

"He does have a point about Kaplain though I guess. If nothing else Robotnik can probably track him if he thinks to."

"I know, and I wish there was a way I could prove to Kyros that Kaplain isn't a threat. But, I guess even I don't know that."

Sissera crossed her arms and asked, "Don't you have some sort of way of viewing his memories or something? That would be a way."

"I wouldn't know where to begin. I don't even know if that's possible, since I haven't had much of a chance to study him. I doubt I'll ever have the time though."

She raised and eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Seltic picked up the neural chip that he had worked on a few days before and stared blankly into it. "Well, the way I figure it, if Robotnik doesn't level us out here with another laser shot from space, Kyros is going to lead us on a suicide mission into Robotropolis bent on revenge or something."

"Did he say that?"

"Not in those words specifically, but that's what I gather from him. He's taking this very badly, but I guess that's normal. He said he had some sort of plan, but didn't tell me what it was."

Concern clouded Sissera's face. "This is hard on us all, but charging back into Robotropolis and getting killed won't solve anything."

"Tell that to him. I'm not going to say anything, this is Kyros after all."

Sissera sighed and added, "Kyros is so unpredictable at times. You'd never know that he cared that much about Maya, but...," she trailed off, fighting back a tear, "I guess she meant so much to us all."

"I don't want to think about it," Seltic muttered.

She paused in thought. "You're going to have to eventually. I mean, what about tomorrow morning when there's no breakfast? Or dinner tomorrow night?"

"I know... but it's so much more than that. She's been... like our mom... all of these years. How can we go on?"

Sissera finally lost her resolve and let a tear out. She slumped into a nearby chair and whimpered, "I'm going to miss her..."

Seltic closed his eyes and replied after an awkward pause, "Me too..."

* * *

The depressingly large pile of supplies still packed in the holding bays of the two hovercraft sent a numbing wave through Tantalus' body. Before setting out the night before, Maya had assigned him the duties of unloading the bulk of materials after the mission had ended. The thought of her innocently handing him the instructions with a smile before setting out sent an icy chill down his spine and a queasy feeling in his stomach. 

He grabbed the pile of damaged laser rifles and tossed them into a growing mound of damaged or worthless equipment. The stinging smell of fried electronics and ruptured energy cells brought back the memories of narrowly evading the energy cannon shots from earlier that day. He let out a long sigh and plopped himself onto the exposed floor of the hovercraft. Another icy feeling engulfed his body as he realized that Maya could well have been but one of many to not return.

A sudden and intense itch ran through his arm, stemming from the scab forming over his previous injury. He anxiously scratched it with a whimper, trying to concentrate on the swirling thoughts clouding his mind. The unpleasant thoughts of a possible funeral ceremony for Maya crept into his head, and he uneasily mulled over any possible comments he might be called on to make. The thoughts prompted a nauseous feeling in his stomach. He placed his hand over his face and pondered how the others were taking the tragedy, especially Marcus.

Over the years he had occasionally imagined himself in Maya or Kyros' places of authority, but he was now extremely thankful for his more menial duties. The difficulty of dealing with the loss of Maya was tough enough by itself without the added grief of ordering her to her doom.

He shifted himself and tried to shift his thoughts to Kyros. Tantalus had regarded Kyros as a sort of older brother and mentor ever since the early years of the battle against Robotnik, regarding his confidence and leadership as things to strive for. The sight of Kyros shaken to his core at the loss of Maya completely sapped his own energy and strength. He rarely saw Kyros so silent and withdrawn, and tried to avoid picturing him sulking alone in his room.

He tried to force himself to his feet and resume his work but lacked the will. Unless something unexpected happened, there would be no need for the hovercraft for the rest of the day, and the equipment still inside of the hovercraft could stand to wait a few more hours. With his apathy growing into a feeling of grogginess, he began to welcome the idea of slipping into his bed and staying there for the rest of the day. He continued to think over the idea before realizing that his house was several blocks away, and he couldn't bring himself to stand.

He instead slowly slumped back into the empty hold of the hovercraft, and despite the uncomfortable feeling of lying against the flat metal he stretched out and stared into the ceiling. He knew he would regret sleeping there when he woke up, but could only bring himself to shut his eyes and try to shun the negative thoughts from his mind.

After lying silently in the hovercraft for an indeterminate amount of time and trying to find a marginally comfortable position, he heard the distinct sound of boots scraping against the concrete floor of the hangar. He tried to ignore the sound, hoping that whoever it was wasn't looking for him. His hopes were tossed aside as he heard Vladimir gruffly shout, "Tantalus, are you in here?"

He tried to ignore the badger calling him, and continued to pretend that he was fast asleep. Vladimir persisted though, and walked around the hovercraft to find him hanging partially out of the opened door. He peered into the hovercraft and grunted, "Tantalus?"

Tantalus thought about continuing to pretend to not be able to hear him, but knew that Vladimir wouldn't leave until he told him whatever he was sent to and so gave in and asked sleepily, "Yeah?"

"Kyros wants you to hurry and finish unloading the ships. He wants us all to meet shortly."

Tantalus perked up and replied, "Uh, alright." He groaned and forced himself up, already beginning to feel the tight mild pain in his lower back from lying on the floor. Vladimir took a moment to ensure that he was awake before marching off.

Instantly, the thoughts from earlier began to flood back to Tantalus. As he pulled himself out of the passenger bay, he began to wonder about what Kyros might have to say to them. Whether it was going to be an awkward moment of Kyros breaking down in front of them all, or ordering them all back into Robotropolis on a suicide mission, he was worried that it wasn't going to be pretty.

* * *

The sight of Stanley sitting quietly at the end of the row of chairs in the dining hall sent Marcus into a sprint. He dashed over to Stanley and embraced him with a cry of joy. "I miss Ms. Maya," he whimpered. 

Stanley returned the hug and replied, "Me too buddy. It's going to be alright, you'll see."

Marcus smiled and backed away. "Is that what Kyros wants us for? Are we going to go save her?"

"Well..." Stanley started, buying time to think up an acceptable answer. "We'll see. There might still be time to get her back," he continued, despite what he really believed. By now, it was almost certain that it was too late, but he couldn't think of anything else that Kyros would need to bring to their attention.

The two took their seats as the others began to silently filter into the meeting area. Each took their typical chair without much comment, filling the dining hall with an almost tangible sense of tension. Tantalus ended the procession by staggering into the room and plopping into the nearest chair, careless of who normally filled it.

Stanley felt himself growing sleepy just watching Tantalus fight to stay awake. His grogginess instantly faded a few minutes later as Kyros slipped inside, using the side entrance that Maya normally would during such meetings. The tension engulfing the room multiplied itself as Kyros mounted the stage, devoid of his normal trench coat and weapons. He clomped over to the microphone rack in the center of the stage and set it aside. Everyone stiffened as his blank stare passed over them, eventually finding its place in the blank seat at the center of the crowd.

He took a deep breath and looked over to an empty part of the room before beginning, "I don't suppose that the reasons for calling this meeting are much of a secret."

At the silence that responded, he resumed, "I think that, especially after the events in Robotropolis last night, we can all say that times are grim and it's tempting to just give up in the face of what we're dealing with. We've had to deal with the loss of someone we loved and cared for, and we will probably never get over it." He looked away again and paused for a moment. "But, as we found out in Robotropolis, Robotnik must be getting close to finishing his plans, and we don't have time to sit around here and feel sorry for ourselves."

The group began to murmur lowly among themselves before Kyros interrupted, "I'm worried that we might not be able to handle things alone this time though, and especially with the loss of... Maya... I think we might just get ourselves killed. So, I've called in for some help."

He pulled the remote for the overhead projector hanging from the ceiling from his pants pocket and thumbed the switch. A vague image flickered across the screen beside Kyros for a moment before focusing into the concerned face of Princess Sally. "I found the radio channel to communicate with them in Maya's files, and asked for some assistance. This is a recording the princess made for us." He hit another button on the remote and stepped back.

The frozen image of Sally shimmered once before coming to life. "Uh, hello everyone. Kyros told me about what happened, and I'd like to say how sorry I am for your loss. But, he's also told me something else that scares me. We too have seen several energy beams falling from the sky, apparently aimed at random places for testing purposes."

She stepped away from the camera slightly and continued, "Our own experiences probably coincide with yours, and we've come to the pretty obvious conclusion that these weapons are some part of whatever it is that Robotnik has been working on, and the fact that he's firing them now means that he's probably close to finishing. We were getting worried too that something would have to be done soon, and were planning on setting out tomorrow to do what we can to stop Robotnik.

"It's going to be a long and tough fight, so we welcome working together with you however we can." She smiled and added finally, "And, I'm still thankful that you helped me out when I was a prisoner in Robotropolis, so I'm willing to help any way I can to save Ms. Morceaux. Let's hope there's still time."

Kyros shut off the projector and addressed the crowd again, "As you just saw, Princess Sally is going to help us, and she's bringing some of her other friends along. I don't think I have to stress enough how important it is that we don't fail to stop Robotnik tomorrow. If things are nearly as bad as they look like they might be, this could well be the end of Mobius if we do."

He hesitated for a moment before saying, "And, as you've probably figured out, I told the princess that we're going to try and save Maya, and she's going to help. I don't care what the risks are, or if she has been roboticized already. I'm going to get her back from Robotnik, one way or another, and I hope that you all agree.

"But, I'm not going to beg any of you to come with me. I know how tough this is on all of us, and I don't want you there if you're only going to be a liability."

Marcus tugged on Stanley's sleeve and energetically whispered to him, "See, we are going to go save her."

Stanley nodded in a surprised manner and replied, "Yeah, I guess so."

Kyros took the center of the stage and spoke once more, "Everyone who wants to help, meet at the usual place tomorrow at sun up. I'm not letting Robotnik get away with this without a fight."

* * *

The midday sun spilling through the breach of the opening hovercraft door soothed Seltic's mind slightly. He had never felt enthusiastic about setting out on a mission to Robotropolis, but the goals at stake and reassuring feeling of the entire team disembarking form the ships overrode his natural pessimism. The newly energetic expression that Kyros wore from across the passenger bay both worried and calmed him. 

He followed Kyros through the door as the ship sputtered to a halt and took in a deep breath of fresh cool air. "So, this is where we're supposed to meet them?" he asked.

Kyros scanned the horizon and replied, "Yeah, almost half an hour ago. I wasn't expecting to have to use both ships."

"You really didn't expect us all to come? What you said was true, you know."

"Yeah, like I said, this is a tough time. I figured that someone would stay behind, but I appreciate all of the help I can get."

"I don't know how much help I'm going to be, but I can always turn Kaplain back on. I'm sure he would help," Seltic joked.

Kyros cut him a wary eye and said, "I don't think so. I brought him along so Robotnik wouldn't be able to track him back to Armadi while we were gone, but I still don't want him awake. He's staying here with the ships."

"Yeah, I know. Let's just hope Robotnik doesn't find the ships."

"I hope that our friends can though, they might have left us behind."

Stanley interrupted the conversation by jogging over to them from where the second hovercraft stopped and spouting, "Hey Kyros, we've got company."

Kyros instantly reacted to the statement by drawing his laser rifle and deactivating the safety. "Where?" he demanded, a mixture of eagerness and irritation crossing his face.

"Over here," the distinctive voice of Princess Sally called from behind atop an outcropping to his left.

Kyros lowered his weapon and replied humbly, "Oh." He raced to meet her as she began to descend the small pile of rocks, flanked by two others he didn't recognize. "Thanks again for helping us out," he said to her, helping her down to ground level.

"Like I said, we're all in this together. This endangers us just as much as you," she replied, stepping down to his level. "So, I brought some of my friends to make sure we get this right"

She raised her hand towards a middle-aged female wolf to her right and said, "Kyros, this is Lupe. She's been a friend of ours for a while now, helping take the fight back to Robotnik. The rest of the Wolf Pack is around here somewhere."

Kyros shook Lupe's hand customarily and said, "Nice to meet you, thanks for coming."

She returned the handshake with a smile. "Pleased to help anyone who doesn't like Robotnik."

Sally pointed to the goat on her left and said, "And this is Griff. We've had a few differences in the past, but have come to be good friends. He normally tries to avoid combat, but I convinced him to join us."

Kyros started to shake his hand too but stopped himself as he noticed the goat not making the same move. "Glad you could come."

"Believe me, this isn't my idea of a good time, but the possibility of giant laser cannons raining down on us sounds much worse. The lesser of two risks, I suppose."

"Yeah, I know," Kyros agreed, trying to maintain an amicable relationship. He turned to the princess and continued, "Well then, do you have any ideas? I'm getting the impression that you normally lead your people."

"Most of the time. I really don't have a whole lot of intelligence on the situation though, so I think we'd be best off working alone, but keep in contact with each other."

Kyros nodded in understanding. "Okay, sounds good. Do you have any idea what we should do though? All we know is that Robotnik demolished the launch pads from before. We still don't know exactly what we're up against, or what other tricks Robotnik might pull out of his sleeve."

Sally frowned and placed her fingers on her temple. "I know, it's all getting very complicated. The only break we have is that Lupe here has found the location of the control center where Robotnik seems to be directing everything. With any luck, if we destroy or cripple it, he won't be able to fire the weapons any more." She half smiled and added, "For a while anyway. It feels incomplete, almost like Robotnik is hiding something important."

Kyros paused in thought for a few awkward seconds before saying, "Well, it's the best we can do. Where should we start?"

* * *

The sound of nearly a score of people defiantly slogging through the toxic swamps on the outskirts of Robotropolis filled Kyros with both reassurance and dread. He knew the relative skills and strengths of his own squad, but the peculiar bunch headed by Sonic and Sally worried him. Their experience might prove useful in a combat situation, but keeping even five people concealed in the heavily patrolled and monitored streets of inner Robotropolis was difficult. With their numbers, something was bound to go wrong, but Kyros felt it best to not mention it at the moment. 

He watched quietly as Sonic exchanged a few excited words with Sally before darting off ahead of the pack with impossible speed and a thunderous sonic boom. After wiping the astonishment from his face he realized why the team didn't have any apparent weapons on them. Between Sonic's incredible speed and the other's skills, there wasn't much need.

Sally looked back to him and slowed her pace so he could catch up. As he neared her, she broke the silence with a low tone, "Sonic's gone on ahead to distract the security forces while we find a way inside. We haven't been to this section of Robotropolis in at least a year, but I think that there's a few ways still left open."

Kyros smiled, mostly at the lack of Sonic. He wasn't in the mood to deal with a jealous and cocky teenager at the moment. "Alright, are we going to split up once we get inside?"

"That's probably a good idea. Sneaking around is probably going to be hard enough in small groups." She glanced aimlessly over the horizon in the general direction of the other two teams. "I just hope this works out. Griff and Lupe are leading some diversions around the power plants, and since we haven't been around there in a while either Robotnik might just buy it."

"So, what are we going to do?" Kyros asked the obvious, trying to dodge a particularly unpleasant puddle of waste.

"Well, I know that one of the main things on your mind is Maya, so I figured that we would stick as close together as possible while you check the holding cells. The control center is a little ways off from them, but should be close enough for us to help if you run into trouble."

"Sounds good," Kyros replied with a little reservation. Despite his efforts to think otherwise, he preferred the idea of Griff's team helping over Sally's. Even though the goat seemed a little too indifferent, he at least had the mind to bring weapons. Sally seemed confident enough, so he dismissed the idea. "Any plans for what to do if we do get into trouble? After all, we are going to be pretty much in the middle of the city."

Sally chuckled and replied, "Don't get caught? Really, the only thing you can do is make a break for the sewers or something."

"I'm glad you've still got a sense of humor about this. I don't have a good feeling at all."

"Me neither, but that's the feeling you get charging into Robotropolis."

Kyros sighed and said, "True, I suppose." He silently tagged along behind the chipmunk and her friends as the entire mob crested the top of a hill. From the peak of the hill, he could make out the putrid clouds of ash and smog billowing from processing plants in Robotropolis. Around the base of the perimeter walls he made out the faint image of Sonic dancing about armies of SWATbots, easily dodging an astonishing amount of weapon fire.

"Here we go again..." Kyros heard Stanley mutter to himself as the remainder of the team reached the vantage point.

* * *

"So, what is the princess's team doing?" Tantalus whispered to Kyros as the team cautiously took cover behind a dumpster. 

"They're going to try and infiltrate the new control center. She hopes that if they wreak a little havoc they can either stop Robotnik completely, or at least buy us some time," he replied, taking a moment to peek around the corner of their cover.

Tantalus stared back in confusion and asked, "Then... what are we doing?"

Kyros motioned for the team to leave their cover and move on before answering, "Doesn't this area look familiar?"

The squirrel said dryly, "Not really, everything looks the same here."

"We're heading to the holding cells where we found the princess earlier. I'm hoping against my better judgment and the odds that Maya will be there."

Vladimir crept up to a corner and checked it quickly. After angling his plasma cannon down the alley he called to the others, "All clear."

The others crouched and slipped over to the badger before darting into the alley. Debris from a recently dismantled launch silo littered the street, intermixed with incinerated chunks of foam insulation and cabling. Kyros stepped over a large hunk of twisted steel and commented, "I guess Robotnik blasted all of the silos."

"I still don't get why though," Tantalus added. "What's the point?"

Seltic stepped up behind them and said, "He was probably just testing the orbital weapons. There's certainly better ways of doing it, but Robotnik does get impatient."

"Clearing space for more stuff then?" Sissera asked.

"Probably."

"I'm not sure I want to know what for," Kyros commented, studying the debris for a second before proceeding in the general direction of the jail cells. "How close are we exactly?" he asked Tantalus.

The squirrel stared at the buildings around them for an instant before replying, "I'm not sure. Like I said, I don't really recognize the place. You'd probably better ask Stanley."

"We're almost there," the porcupine answered without being asked.

"Then you get up here and lead the way," Kyros said to him impatiently.

* * *

After following Stanley through the twisting streets of Robotropolis for several minutes without encountering any resistance, Kyros was beginning to get worried. No matter how many times he had to sneak through the streets, he always encountered at least something. The situation felt too much like a typical setup, but like he told everyone earlier, he was prepared to face anything. Backing down now would also destroy the team's already fragile morale, and he wasn't sure if even he would be able to stand abandoning their last chance of saving Maya. 

The sight of the aging and grime coated bulkhead-like doors gave Kyros pause. A slight feeling of doom and dread washed over him as he stepped up to the door controls, and he pictured himself dying a slow agonizing death trapped behind the bars of a cell. Despite the princess' presence only days before, the entire complex looked as though it had been abandoned for decades.

"The door's locked, of course," he directed to the others after a brief examination. "Seltic, is there anything you can do?"

Seltic stepped over to the protruding key pad and answered, "I don't think that there's much that can be done. I think these doors are designed to be resistant to tampering. You're actually probably best off blowing your way through the door."

Kyros turned a curious eye to Stanley. "How did you guys get in before?"

"The door was open for some reason," Stanley replied, shrugging.

Kyros groaned and stared at the heavy set metal doors. "That would make too much noise... how are we going to get inside?"

Seltic waved for Vladimir to approach, puzzling over the possibilities. "If we adjust the field focus on the plasma cannon, it can just spray plasma instead of launching it. That's hot enough to evaporate anything."

"Great, do it," Kyros said without thought.

Seltic accepted the order without a word and proceeded to remove his portable computer from his coat. He plugged a cable into a free port on the plasma cannon's side and set the computer down. "Alright, it's going to take a minute or two."

Kyros left him to his work and passively asked Stanley, "Do you remember which way the princess's holding cell was?"

"I think so, it shouldn't be hard to find anyway. Of course, that doesn't mean that Maya is going to be in the same cell."

Kyros fidgeted about for a moment and said, "Yeah, I know. There's hundreds of cells in this building alone, but it's the best place I know to start. We might be wasting our time anyway."

Stanley let out a long sigh and nodded with a slight frown. From behind them, Seltic suddenly stood and removed the cable from the cannon with a triumphant chuckle.

"I guess that's it actually, didn't take as long as I thought," he said to Kyros. "Alright Vlad, just step back and hold the trigger down. If the gun gets too hot it'll shut itself off for a minute to cool."

Vladimir offered a grunt of understanding and hefted the large and awkward weapon into an appropriate firing position. He braced his legs in position and squeezed the trigger, sending a fountain of incandescent energy into the doors. Intense heat bleeding from the barrel of the weapon began to singe the strap of the cannon as the flow of swirling plasma ate away at the door. Flecks of molten metal sparked from the door as the material began to bubble and melt away like ice. After several seconds of coating the doors with super-heated plasma, the weapon gurgled to a halt, dripping condensation from the coolant cowling.

Kyros gave the liquefied slag of a door several seconds to cool before inspecting the gaping hole now open before them. He squinted to shield his eyes from the stinging heat and forced himself through the breach. "Okay everyone, inside. Hurry up too, that thing's insanely hot."

The others complied immediately and squeezed past the red hot remains, assembling a step behind him. Stanley read Kyros' expression and took the lead with the unneeded statement, "This way guys."

Everyone fell in line behind Stanley, carefully following him as he darted around corners and hurried down the lengthy hallways leading to their previous encounter. Kyros caught a breath between strides and asked Tantalus, "Did you guys meet any security in here last time?"

Tantalus gasped and huffed, "No, not even cameras."

"I really don't like this," Kyros mumbled to himself. As he looked up, he nearly collided with Stanley who had suddenly stopped at a corner. "What?" he whispered.

"A SWATbot ahead. It hasn't spotted us yet."

Kyros smirked. "I knew there would be some security, they're guarding someone."

"Or waiting for us," Tantalus added nervously.

"Well, either way we're here and not going anywhere," he replied. "Did anyone bring any ion charges with them? I'd like to do this without being discovered if possible."

Seltic pointed at the plasma cannon in Vladimir's hands and said, "This thing is pretty much a charged particle cannon too, if Vlad can get close enough he'll never see it coming."

"Very well then," Vladimir spoke up, priming the weapon for use again. He slipped over to the corner and waited for the SWATbot to come near. The moment the robot spun around to patrol in the opposite direction, he stepped into the hallway and hammered the trigger, spewing unfocused plasma down the hallway.

The SWATbot turned to face him an instant before the cloud of glowing gas and energy engulfed it, evaporating part of its body and instantly destroying its electrical systems. It clanged to the ground with what sounded like a deafening roar in the silence.

Kyros entered the hallway and inspected the fallen robot before commenting, "Great. We've just got to hope none of them heard that." He stood and continued, "No time to wait though, let's go."

Stanley complied and set off down the hallway again, making a final turn to proceed down a slope into the priority holding area. The change of lighting felt like a warning sign to Kyros, the brighter bulbs overhead glaring down on them like Robotnik himself. Stanley jogged down the row of cells for a few seconds before slowing to a disappointed stop. He stared into the cell next to him and announced, "Well, she's not in here."

Kyros took in a breath and said, "Then let's get looking, if she's in this building she's in here somewhere."

He readied himself to begin searching through the dozens of visible cells moments before a weak voice called, "Kyros? Is that... you?"

The entire team fell silent except for Marcus who immediately jumped up and charged in the direction of the voice. "Ms. Maya? Where are you?" he shouted, much to Kyros' concern.

The group slowly worked their way towards the source of the voice, piling around a cell at the far end of the wing in a stupor. Kyros forced his way past the others to get a view, and found himself similarly shocked. Maya's battered face weakly looked back at him, squinting through a pair of cracked glasses. She cradled a bruise on her shoulder, and winced as she moved to try to stand.

"Hold on, we'll get you out of there!" Kyros shouted, oblivious to possible interlopers. He angled his laser rifle at the base of the bars blocking her exit and opened fire. The bolts of light energy exploded against the weak metal, twisting the bars and freeing them from the floor. He smashed two aside with his foot to open a path and entered the cell. "I'll kill Robotnik with my bare hands for this," he growled as he crouched beside her.

"I... tried to escape. One of the robots... did this," she uttered weakly as Kyros helped her to her feet. She grunted quietly as she stood and motioned for Kyros to hold a moment for her to catch her breath.

"Seltic, get Sally on the radio, tell her we've found Maya," Kyros directed to the tenrec.

As Seltic complied with the order, Kyros helped Maya hobble out of the cell. She coughed several times and wiped clotted blood from her nose before shutting her eyes and letting a tear roll down her cheek. "I... was so scared... I thought that... I'd never see you again," she whimpered between tears and sniffles.

Kyros gently embraced her and replied meekly, "Me too. We're getting out of here, the princess is handling the rest."

"O-okay."

Kyros turned his attention to Seltic to find him confused and fiddling with the tuners on the radio. Seltic flicked a switch on the main unit to activate the loud speaker and said, "Uh, Kyros, you need to hear this."

"It's a trap! We're surrounded!" Griff's unmistakable voice screeched over the radio. It was followed by confused radio traffic from the Wolf Pack, and a male voice that Kyros recognized as Rotor the Walrus from Sally's team. "Fall back and regroup!" Griff shouted again.

"He's going to get us all caught like that," Kyros droned, deeply in thought.

"What about Kyros' team?" an unrecognized wolf demanded over the radio.

"We haven't heard from them, let's hope that they're alright," Rotor answered.

Kyros dashed over to the radio and grabbed the handset. "We're fine at the moment, and we've found Maya. What's the plan?" he spoke into it, trying to keep a level voice.

As he listened for a reply, an enormous ominous shadow began to overtake the group. Kyros dropped the radio set after a second of studying the outline of the shadow, and whirled around to confirm his worst fears. He felt his knees grow weak as his eyes tracked up the wall of the cell pit and to the second floor. Standing at the guard rail of the second story was Dr. Ivo Robotnik, flanked by several dozen roboticized creatures and SWATbots.

The overlander tweaked the end of his long bushy mustache and bellowed, "Plan, you say? Why don't you surrender yourselves to me and make things easy?" Cluck, who had been silently resting on his shoulder, let out a low hiss as it glared down at them.

Kyros felt Maya suddenly grow heavy as she lost her strength. He glanced over to see her face fixed in terror and her hand clasped over her chest. Kyros scowled and shouted back, "Never! I'll die before I see you do this to one of us again!" He recovered his laser rifle and aimed it at Robotnik.

"Not very nice manners you have there, Kyros. But, I'm not going to hold that against you! Normally I'd either torture or execute someone who's caused so much trouble to me over the years, but I recognize your potential. Instead, I'm going to have you roboticized, so you can serve as my personal body guard. How does that sound, my friend?"

Kyros clenched his teeth and opened fire at his rotund target. His laser fire was followed by Stanley and Tantalus joining in, and the tenrecs firing bursts of plasma at the army above. Vladimir finally joined the volley, spraying the entire upper deck with withering heat from the modified plasma cannon. As their weapons ran out of energy and overheated, the intense salvos faded out to reveal the completely devastated deck above. Many destroyed and gutted robots slumped over the guard rails or clambered to the floor below, forming a morbid pile in front of the group.

As the smoke and floating debris cleared, Kyros felt his mouth drop involuntarily. The silhouette of an extremely overweight overlander formed in the dust cloud, covered in the shimmering protective field of a shield generator. A green-tinted sphere of energy crackled and flickered off, revealing the sickening toothy grin on Robotnik's face.

"Now that's the spirit I'm talking about!" he boomed once more. "But, I can't let such a flagrant disregard of my person go unpunished." Robotnik turned to a robot beside him and commanded, "Fire."

The maimed robot nodded and stuttered, "Y-yes Lo...rd." It raised its arm as high as it could, throwing sparks and metal debris from its damaged shoulder.

Kyros felt his stomach lurch at the unmistakable sound of a grenade launcher discharging, but found himself paralyzed. The entire group watched in astonishment and disbelief as the metal cylinder bounced harmlessly across the floor and came to rest at his feet. He instinctively shoved Maya back, away from the certain death only steps away.

The others just managed to take off as the explosive detonated, throwing them all to the ground or nearby wall. Kyros felt an indescribable mixture of burning, pain, and numbness wrack his body as the flames from the explosion engulfed his body, followed by hundreds of shards of twisted shrapnel.

"Oh my, it looks like you won't be going anywhere now, will you Kyros?" he heard Robotnik spout before cackling. His eyes grew heavy as the strength drained from his body, and Kyros welcomed the loss of consciousness that followed.


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

_Robotropolis_

_An Unknown Time Later_

At the sound of Marcus uttering a whimper between sniffles, Maya tightened her arm around him. She shut her eyes and tried to level her voice before consoling him, "It's going to be alright dear, try not to worry."

He wiped his eyes and stuttered, "Wh-what are we going to do?"

The elderly mink sighed. "I don't yet know, but we'll do something." She rubbed her still ringing ears and glanced over the others now in the cell with her. The group had long ago given up trying to find an exit, and quietly sat in acceptance of their fate.

Tantalus removed his face from his hands and sat up straight against the wall. "It's over. We've lost. Kyros, Stanley, and Seltic are dead, and we're all about to be turned into robots." He picked at a fragment of grenade shrapnel protruding from his cheek and added, "Maybe it won't be so bad... at least nothing will hurt any more."

Sissera weakly looked up and said, "You might want to leave that alone, you might make the cut worse."

He winced and halted as fresh blood oozed from the wound. "What's it matter? In a few hours we won't even have blood."

Maya scowled at him and glared through the headache-inducing light. "Try to calm down some, you're scaring Marcus."

Tantalus glared back and shouted, "I'm scared too!" After an awkward pause and noting the mild shock on her face he apologized, "Sorry..."

"We're all scared," she replied. "But we're not robots yet. You've got to have some hope, like I did before you all showed up."

Vladimir growled and scratched a series of graze wounds on his shoulder. "I'm not giving up without a fight. When that overlander returns, I am going to wring his neck with my hands." He snarled and smashed his hand against the ruined pile on the floor that was once his armor.

"I wouldn't be so cocky if I were you," a nasally voice interrupted. Everyone snapped to attention and looked out of the cell to find a short bald overlander smugly staring back. "Fighting back only makes the doctor excited."

"Snively! Maybe I'll start with you instead!" Vladimir shouted, leaping to his feet.

Snively stepped back just out of Vladimir's reach and chuckled. "How? You're not going anywhere."

"The others will come and save us, this isn't over yet," Maya replied.

Snively let out a shrill laugh and replied, "Who? The echidna and his friends? The princess and that blasted hedgehog? Or, perhaps you mean this fellow?" Snively motioned for a pair of SWATbots to approach, the two dragging a robotic deer by the arm.

"Kaplain!? What are you going to do to him?" she demanded.

"I found him in your abandoned transport. The doctor thought that we should just tear him down and recycle him, but I think a little more thorough analysis is in order. I'm going to love dissecting him to figure out just how he went traitor."

Maya stumbled over her thoughts, trying to find a reply to his pompous tone. She bit her lip for a moment before the deep rumble of a heavy metal door grinding open echoed through the jail complex. Snively grinned and looked down the hallway before adding, "Well, it's been fun, but I think your time's come. I'll be seeing you around, maybe you'll make my coffee for me or something."

Snively stepped aside to make room for his uncle, prompting a queasy feeling in Maya's stomach as a large shadow loomed across the floor. She stiffened and watched in terror as the shadow shifted from side to side from Robotnik's steps, accompanied by his usual heavy footsteps and the unmistakable clank of metal feet against the cold concrete floor.

She leaned away from the metal bars of the cell and pulled Marcus close as the shadow was replaced by the bright red and yellow uniform of Robotnik. He took a brief glance at Snively and his cargo before turning his attention to the group detained in the cell. Cluck chattered in excitement from its place on his shoulder.

"It's good to see that you all decided to stay for a while," he spoke, ending with his usual grin. "After all, I've had such a time with prisoners lately," he continued, fading to a glower, "Thanks to you, that is." The group stared back, speechless. "What? No snappy comeback? Nothing to say to your host?" Robotnik bellowed to the silent gathering. "Well, I think I have a solution for that."

As he stepped back and motioned for someone out of sight, the metal footfalls clanged through the cell once more. Maya led the others in involuntary gasps at the sight of colored metal glistening under the overhead lighting followed by the red glow of robotic eyes.

"I couldn't let Kyros go to waste," Robotnik said with a chuckle. "So, I gathered these three up and had them roboticized before they died." Robotnik patted Kyros on his head and continued, "They were pretty banged up after that grenade went off,so I wasn't sure how well it would work, but after a little repair work they all seem fine." He crouched down as best his body would allow to meet Maya's face. "Too bad you won't be for long."

Robotnik let out a deep sinister laugh as he watched the group in the cell cower and huddle together. "Oh, don't worry. I'm not going to have you roboticized! You've caused me a little too much trouble for that, so instead I'd rather have you killed outright. I'll enjoy watching the recording over and over again."

Everyone's eyes snapped open at his words, and Tantalus scurried over to Vladimir for cover. Maya moved Marcus around behind herself and tried to get to her feet, halting as her injuries sent waves of pain through her body.

Robotnik grinned again and looked to his nephew. "Come along Snively, there's still much to be done."

Snively's mouth dropped open slightly before he replied, "Sir, you can't be serious! You're just going to leave them to their fate? Don't you want to watch it? What if something goes wrong?"

Robotnik cut his eyes to him and said, "I'm recording it, and besides, what could go wrong? They're not going to fight their way past three combat robots. Now, stop arguing with me and come."

"Fine, sir, but just remember that this is exactly how things always go wrong," Snively replied in a low tone, taking a final glance at the prisoners.

Robotnik leaned over his nephew and took a deep breath. His eyes narrowed as he asked, "Did I ask for your opinion, Snively?"

"No, sir," Snively answered, cowering from his monstrous uncle.

"I thought not." As Robotnik led his nephew out of the jail, he shouted to his robot minions, "Kill them all!"

"Of course, my lord," Kyros answered. He reached out and grasped one of the metal bars of the cell and clenched his grip until it bent under the stress. His gaze drifted down to Maya's face before he calmly said, "Despair, for your end is near."

"N-No roboticizer?" Tantalus whimpered.

Without responding, Kyros tore the bar from the cell, followed by his comrades. Maya led her remaining friends in backing away from the approaching robots as they opened a large enough gap in the bars and entered the cell. The robotic echidna stepped towards Maya and lowered his eyes to her once more. As he reached towards her, Vladimir suddenly lashed out at him. Kyros stumbled to the side as Vladimir's body slammed into him.

"Do not interfere!" he shouted in his modulated voice, grasping the badger by his arm. With a fluid motion, he hurled Vladimir through the opening in the bars. As Vladimir landed with a thud outside of his vision, Kyros resumed his prior agenda. He snatched Maya by the arm and pulled her away from the others. She let out a horrified gasp as he forced her arms behind her and clasped his hand around her wrists. He backed away another step and extended a blade from his free wrist, angling it against her exposed throat. As a faint sheath of energy enveloped the blade, he said, "Maya Morceaux, for your crimes against our lord Doctor Robotnik, you are to witness the death of your friends."

At his words, the three still in the cell snapped their eyes open further and huddled together. Kyros sneered and continued, "Seltic, Stanley, begin."

The two robots obliged and stepped forward. Seltic let out an uncharacteristic cackle as he pressed his sister against the back of the cell and pointed his arm at her face. "It's too bad you can't join us sis, the perfection of being a machine is indescribable," he whispered to her, extending an internal weapon from the top of his forearm.

"No, Seltic... please don't do this!" she begged, trying to look away from the barrel of the plasma cannon aimed between her eyes. "Remember Kaplain? I know you're still in there!"

He blinked in confusion for a moment before insisting, "No... Seltic... is dead, this is me now." A faint violet glow formed in the barrel as he added, "And my master... Robotnik... wants you dead."

Sissera uttered an incomprehensible response, staring into the barrel and failing to contain a tear. Seltic hesitated as the tear rolled down her cheek and spattered against his roboticized boot, and looked away. "I must... Robotnik..."

Tantalus interrupted and shouted, "Forget Robotnik! If you don't do something, your sister is going to die!" He jumped towards the two tenrecs in desperation before Stanley caught him and slammed him against the wall of the cell.

Seltic shut his eyes and looked down before stammering, "Wh-what?" He looked back up at Sissera before dropping her in horror.

Stanley and Kyros instantly trained their eyes at him and demanded, "Seltic?" At his silence, Kyros added, "If you cannot complete your duties, then we will." With a gesture, he instructed Stanley to intervene.

As Stanley pushed past him and reached for Sissera, Seltic knocked him aside and shouted, "No, stop!"

Kyros threw Maya down and sprung for him, followed by Stanley. "Traitor!" the two growled in unison.

Seltic braced against their onslaught, staggering as they slammed him into the corner. With all of his strength he wrestled free and sprinted for the exit of the cell. As he reached the void of the hallway, he was smashed from his feet by a blow from Kyros. He crashed into the ground on one knee, and managed to dodge moments before a smattering of lasers from Stanley raked the concrete. His attempts to regain his footing were thwarted time after time as Kyros and Stanley exchanged turns slamming him about.

"What are you waiting for!? Get out of here!" Seltic yelled into the cell at the bewildered group.

They stared back for several moments at a sudden silence in the brawl before helping each other to their feet. Kyros floored Seltic again and shouted, "No you don't, you will be killed by our hands!" Kyros sprinted towards a vacant area in the hallway and looked towards the ceiling. "My lord, we have a serious situation in the holding cells! Please advise!"

At his words, a sudden revelation washed over Seltic. He forced himself to his feet and pinned Stanley long enough to announce, "Kyros! Look!"

Kyros growled and snapped his head towards Seltic just in time to watch him place a coin sized object on Stanley's head right behind his ear. Stanley immediately tensed up and grabbed at the object, shouting in pain as if he was still organic. Kyros crouched to ready himself to leap at the tenrec before Seltic removed the object and dove to the side.

Kyros ignored Stanley's pained thrashing and pursued his target. He threw himself into Seltic with a deafening clang of metal on metal. With a snarl he pinned him against the floor. He placed one hand around his throat and brought the other back in preparation to fire an integrated weapon. "Die, scum!" Kyros shouted as he fired the weapon. His shot obliterated a chunk of cement beside Seltic's head as he was hurled from his prior position by an unseen assailant.

He reoriented himself and glanced over to see Stanley helping Seltic to his feet. He scowled and shouted, "All traitors will be destroyed!" He changed stance to throw himself at the two once more and opened fire with the particle rifle built into his arm. A sinister smile formed on his face as the beam exploded against Seltic's shoulder.

Stanley took advantage of Kyros' momentary distraction by slamming him against the wall and pinning his weapon arm behind him. As he watched Kyros extend the energy-sheathed blade in his free arm he shouted, "Seltic, I could use some help here!"

Seltic hefted himself to his feet and raced to Stanley's side in time to watch him struggle to keep Kyros pinned. "Try to hold him still for a second," Seltic directed unnecessarily as he placed the same object on Kyros' head. Both backed away as Kyros let out a pained shriek and grabbed at the object.

He slumped to his knees and grabbed at his ears before plowing his hand into the concrete floor. His jaw clenched shut and a scowl formed on his face as faint electrical sparks formed around the object attached to the side of his head. After several seconds the sparks ceased and Kyros' expression returned to normal. He blinked and rubbed his head again before asking, "What... just happened?"

As Stanley helped him to his feet, Seltic answered, "I'm not so sure that I believe that it really worked."

"What?" Kyros asked again, trying to determine his surroundings.

"The neural overrider... it actually worked. I brought it along, just in case we needed it," Seltic replied, removing the object from Kyros' head and displaying it proudly. "I guess Robotnik didn't notice."

Kyros looked him and Stanley over and continued, "But how did we..."

Seltic pointed at a spot behind his own ear and interrupted, "I'm just glad that the roboticizer didn't make the overrider a part of me. I was able to remove it and attach it to each of you long enough for it to disable certain parts of your processor networks. Thankfully it was strong enough for you two to regain your free will immediately."

Stanley stepped forward and uneasily scanned the room. "If you say-," he began before spying Vladimir struggling to stand from the pile Kyros put him in earlier. "Oh no..." he muttered as the memories of their previous actions began to return to him.

Kyros' eyes grew wide and he whispered a curse as he dashed off towards the holding cell where the others remained. While Stanley tended to Vladimir, he and Seltic slowly entered the cell, trying not to startle its occupants.

Maya instantly ceased rubbing her wrists and consoling Marcus as the two robots shuffled in. She limped back towards and pressed herself against the wall of the cell and meekly questioned, "K-Kyros?

* * *

Tantalus rocked back from his seated position on the floor to prop himself up with his hands and sighed. "I still can't believe it... I mean, when I said that to Seltic I didn't expect it to work. It was a long shot."

Seltic turned his attention to him and said, "It normally wouldn't have. If I hadn't brought the neural overrider with me, what you said wouldn't have even fazed me. But, with its help you were able to get through to me."

"And us," Stanley added.

Seltic nodded. "The overrider didn't work perfectly, and it was only on me. But, since I regained control of myself I was able to attach it to you two."

"Man, were we lucky. A few more seconds and you'd all have been dead," Kyros added.

Maya rubbed her aching wrists again and sighed. "Yes, we were lucky, but we don't have time to sit around. Robotnik is about to unleash whatever he has in store, and we're the only ones who can stop him now." She looked to Kyros and asked, "Did you see or learn anything while you were in the command center?"

Kyros looked away, trying to ignore the memories of being roboticized. "No, not really. All I heard was Robotnik yelling at Snively about something not being ready yet."

"The satellites!" Seltic broke in suddenly after a realization struck him. "I remember now, it was the satellites."

"What about them? Did you find out what they were for?" Maya asked him.

"Yeah, they're weapons. Right now there are forty-seven satellites orbiting Mobius, each armed with a series of particle cannons and orbital missile launchers. I remember seeing on one of the large computer screens that most weren't fully charged yet."

"So, he plans to use them to destroy Armadi and the other groups' homes? So we couldn't fight back? No one would even see it coming," Maya muttered to herself.

"Yeah, all Robotnik would need is the locations. From what I heard from his conversation with Snively and a few SWATbots, the targeting systems aren't working right at the moment either. But, I'd say we've only got a few more hours to stop him before he's ready." Seltic's face turned as grim as his mechanical features would allow. "He may already have the location of Armadi... and if he doesn't yet, then Kaplain might be able to tell him."

Kyros glowered at him and asked, "What do you mean by that? Is Kaplain a spy after all?"

"I didn't say that," Seltic snapped. "Kaplain could easily crack under pressure as far as we know, or if not Robotnik could probably retrieve enough information from his memories. With him in their hands it's only a matter of time before he does figure it out. We're just unbelievably lucky that Robotnik was too stupid to make us tell him where Armadi is."

Maya staggered to her feet and added, "Then we really have no choice. As bad as I just want to get out of here... we have to stop Robontik. Now."

Kyros jumped up and interrupted, "Alright. I've had it with the complex plans not working and us getting caught. Robotnik's made the one fatal mistake of his career. He roboticized me and I got my free will back."

Maya stared at him in confusion and asked, "What exactly are you going to do?"

Kyros grit his metal teeth and replied coolly, "We're going to level the new command center. With my newfound strength he won't be able to stop me... and may heaven have mercy on his soul if I catch him."

"But, what about the others?" Stanley broke in, pointing to Maya. "We might still be able to fight, but..."

Maya smiled uneasily and interrupted, "I've got strength in me yet, I think I can manage to keep going."

Kyros cut his eyes to her. "No, I'm not taking any more chances. The hovercraft might be gone, but there's a SWATbot airpod repair bay a few blocks away. I want you all out of Robotropolis as soon as possible."

"What about you three?" she demanded.

"We'll think of something. Now, come on and let's go before Robotnik shows up." He glared impatiently as Maya tried to find an excuse for the team to stay together. "Don't make me force you," he said, laying his palm on her shoulder.

She looked away and sighed, "Alright... let's go."

* * *

Standing outside in Robotropolis and not being able to smell the pollution hanging in the air was unnerving for Kyros. His newly robotic body no longer needed to breathe, and was unable to feel the light chilly breeze blowing through the dark street. He glanced over the row of buildings in front of them, thankful that his new body at least granted him improved sight in the dimly lit environment.

He stepped forward from the destroyed entrance to the jail and addressed his teammates, "Alright, this area looks clear." With a glance to Seltic he went on, "Do you remember the way to the repair bay?"

Seltic nodded and stepped towards a side street. "It was back this way, right?"

"Yeah," Kyros answered, looking back to his organic friends. "I want you to escort them to the site and find a working airpod. After you get them airborne and on the way out of here, meet me back at the command center."

"Got it," the tenrec acknowledged. He waited for Maya and the others to approach him before slowly leading them down the alley.

Kyros waited for the group to get out of sight before turning to Stanley. "Alright, you know what we're going to do, right?"

"Destroy the satellite control center, right?" he replied.

"Exactly. We don't have a whole lot of time to be subtly sneak around, so let's just fly there and get to work."

Stanley thought over the comment for a moment and asked, "Can we handle it alone?"

"We're going to try. Hopefully there won't be much more than worker bots in the control center, so we should be able to cause some serious damage quickly." Kyros motioned for the sky and leaped into the air. A series of rocket engines in the soles of his roboticized boots coughed and roared to life with a blinding flash of white flame. He soared a story into the air and waited for Stanley to join him. "Ready?"

Stanley rose to his eye level and offered a confirmation. As Kyros returned a cocky smile and rocketed off in the general direction of the satellite control complex, he suddenly heard the hated voice of Robotnik in his head say, "The echidna and his cohorts have escaped from the holding cells in district twenty-nine! All units be on the lookout and engage immediately! All robots in the area report to the satellite management facility to defend it at all costs!"

"Doesn't look like fatso is going to make this easy," Kyros muttered to Stanley as the porcupine pulled beside him mid flight.

"Do you still think we can handle it? There's over five million robots in this city, you know."

Kyros scowled and replied, "I don't know or care. You can run home if you want, but I've had it with running from Robotnik. He's going to hurt today." Moments later a volley of energy beams stabbed at the two from the ground below, missing or slightly grazing their targets. "Ignore them, we don't have the time," Kyros shouted to his companion over the roar of their integrated rockets.

"I think I see a squadron of buzzbombers up ahead, what do we do?" Stanley asked at the sight of a handful of objects appearing from behind a row of power plant cooling towers and heading towards them.

Kyros hesitated and answered, "We might be able to make it to the control center without them catching us, so forget about them." As he finished speaking he noticed a series of flashes around the approaching wasp robots followed by the shriek of missiles tearing through the air. "Scratch that, look out!" he shouted as the missiles drew close.

The two immediately dropped altitude and dove into a wide street below. Explosions from the rockets impacting against buildings peppered them with chunks of pulverized cement, and the shock waves nearly threw Kyros into a girder stretching across their path. As he attempted to correct his flight path he was rocked by another explosion from a robot below firing a missile at him. He growled and slowed to round a corner. "This isn't looking good, I hope we can find some way to destroy the facility quickly."

"I hear you," Stanley replied solemnly as he too followed the corner of the street. He followed Kyros several more blocks before he noted the distinctive change of architecture. The old and abandoned look of the buildings behind him were replaced by the brighter sheets of prefabricated polymers used to build the new structures in the city. The grim dark streets and alleys were now well lit and littered with webs of various cables connecting the structures.

Kyros dodged a spray of anti-aircraft laser fire from the end of the street and led Stanley to an altitude just above street level. "We might be able to avoid most of the fire this way," he shouted over the cannons blazing. "We must be getting close, so watch-" he started before slamming into something jutting from an alley.

He tumbled along the street for nearly a block before regaining his footing and turning to face the object. A roboticized lizard jumped from the alley, lowering the ruined arm that it used to stop him mid flight. "Enemy spotted!" it bellowed to any others possibly nearby.

Kyros flexed his joints to ensure that the dent in his torso was only superficial before preparing to engaging his attacker. He raised a concealed weapon from his forearm and began charging it moments before the maimed lizard was blown from its feet into the air by Stanley firing a grenade. It landed with a crunch several meters away, twitching weakly as the dust settled. "Good thinking. Let's go on foot from here."

Stanley landed on the shattered asphalt road beside him seconds later and offered a smile. "You lead."

Kyros forwent a comment and dashed off down the road as fast as his robotic body would allow. Beams of laser light and plasma shredded the air around him as the two barreled towards a downward slope ahead. The anti-air batteries firing at them were unsuited to attacking them on the ground, and they managed to avoid the devastating lances of energy long enough to reach the slope. They marveled for a moment at the arrays of antennae below before a SWATbot droned, "Echidna alert, priority two."

A violet beam of energy impacted Stanley's shoulder, throwing flecks of paint and sparks into the air. The SWATbot was annihilated an instant later as both opened fire with their weapons. Kyros waited for the robot's remains to clamber to the street before leading Stanley down the slope. He scanned the transceiver dishes arrayed around the large dip in the terrain that housed the control center and immediately fixed his eyes on a pair of spires rising into the sky supporting an antenna array.

"We don't have time to level the building the old fashioned way, so I think we're going to have to get creative," he said to Stanley before noting a growing gathering of robots at the base of the multi-story facility.

"Got any ideas?" Stanley questioned, trying to retain his composure in the face of the army of military robots lining up to defend the center.

"I think we can knock those two towers down onto the building. That should flatten it, I don't care what it's made of." He gestured for Stanley to follow him into the air once more before catapulting himself skyward.

Their ascension was followed by a chorus of shouts from the defenders, each robot's battle cry drowned out and contorted by the others. The soldiers braced themselves and armed their weapons, preparing to engage the two the moment they proved themselves a target. Kyros shot a grim expression to his companion and said, "Follow me and fire everything you've got at the base of it, maybe we'll only have to knock out one tower to bring the whole thing down."

He launched into the air with all of his might, spewing fountains of flaming thrust from the rocket engines in his feet and gaining altitude as rapidly as possible. As Stanley followed suit, the thousands of defenders opened fire, obscuring the details of the control center under a fog of muzzle flashes and missile trails. Tens of thousands of lasers, plasma beams, ion particle lances, solid slug tracers, and ballistic missiles poured from the assorted mass of robots below, roaring towards them.

Kyros and Stanley were rocked by several impacts on their way toward cover. As they flew behind the skyscraper next to them they continued to dive and weave through the air. The building shook and crumbled as the staggering volleys of weapon fire demolished it in seconds. Despite the clouds of flak and exploded missiles clouding his view, they pressed on towards their target, thanking again the confusion the astounding amount of weapon fire had caused. As he passed over the majority of the defenders he fired a few shots into the crowd in the hopes of sowing more confusion.

The machines below stood firm and took the shots instead of spreading out like he had hoped, clearly concerned only with their duty. Now that he had revealed his position to them once more, they opened fire again, pouring random shots at them as each robot caught a glimpse. The scattered fire was far less effective, managing to only land a handful of hits.

"Only one chance at this!" Kyros shouted to Stanley as they cleared the bulk of smoke and debris and caught sight of the tower base. Both unloaded their weapons at the foundation pillars holding the fifty-meter tower up, blowing immense chunks of steel reinforced concrete and polymer construction into the air. Kyros noted the tower shift slightly along its damaged corner but realized that despite the terrible damage inflicted the tower wouldn't fall. "Follow me!" he yelled again to his assistance.

He led Stanley into the pillar, crashing into it with as much force as he could muster. The tortured pillar sagged further and began to disintegrate as Stanley impacted the pillar after him, beginning to crumble moments after the two fell from their collision spots to the ground. Kyros and Stanley rocked to their feet and stumbled out of the way as another salvo of ill-aimed weapon fire from the army of robots wracked the column. The tons of concrete immediately collapsed, bringing the tower down with a screech of twisted metal.

Dismissing their own safety, the robots continued to fire at Kyros and Stanley as the tower plummeted into the control center. Robots were hurled through the air alongside vehicle-sized hunks of wall, ceiling, and steel as the tower crashed through the building, slicing through it like a knife. The remaining robots scrambled for the clearing to continue their assault despite the tower bringing rows of antennae down onto the site followed by the second tower slumping and collapsing in a twisted heap.

Kyros failed to fight back a smile as he spotted violent fires erupting from the breaches in the building. "That'll have to do. Let's get out of here and meet up with Seltic," he said to Stanley.

"I couldn't agree more," Stanley replied, noting a small army of robots beginning to make chase on foot.

* * *

"Why didn't you just tell Seltic to beat it with the others and we just leave?" Stanley asked Kyros as the unnerving sight of the egg shaped primary command center of Robotropolis began to fill his vision.

"Because we aren't done yet," Kyros replied. "Like I said, Robotnik will remember this day until the day he dies."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Stanley asked again, worry apparent in his voice.

"We're going to destroy the roboticizer."

Stanley coughed and sputtered incoherently for a second. "Do you think we can make it past security?"

Kyros smirked and replied, "Did you see the size of the force back there? That had to be most of the security detail from here. I think with Seltic's help we can fight out way in." He cut his eyes to Stanley and added, "Like I said, you can run if you want, but I'm not."

"No... you're right. We've got to do this now or we might never get the chance again. Robotnik won't..." Stanley replied before spotting a distinctly green robot below. "I think I see Seltic."

"Yeah, I see him too." Kyros swooped down and landed with an uneasy thud. He forced his damaged body to carry him forward to rendezvous with Seltic, waving his hand to signal that he wasn't one of the Robotropolis defenses.

Seltic smiled as best his robotic features would allow and said, "I'm glad to see you guys. I was getting worried that one of the robots would figure out that I'm not one of them soon. Did you blow the control center?"

Kyros slowed to a halt in front of the tenrec and smiled weakly. "Yeah. It's not completely gone but it's ruined beyond usage. If nothing else I think we've delayed Robotnik for months."

"Great, so are we heading out now?"

Kyros frowned and said, "Not yet. I told you to meet us here so we could go inside and destroy the roboticizer." He pointed to himself and went on, "I don't want this to happen to anyone ever again."

Seltic stepped back and asked, "Ar-are you serious? We'll never make it!"

"I think most of the defenses were at the control facility, so if we hurry we might be able to make it before they get here. But, we will absolutely have to do it now if we're going to because once Robotnik figures out what happened all of the bots in the city will be converging on our position."

Stanley landed suddenly beside him and insisted, "We might as well. There's no point in arguing about it and wasting time."

Seltic's eyes darted between the two. "Alright, alright... let's hurry."

* * *

Kyros stepped gingerly past the smoldering remains of a freshly destroyed security robot and asked, "Alright Seltic, do you remember the way?"

Seltic studied the hallway they stood in for a moment and replied wearily, "No, sorry. This building is so big and complex I don't recognize where we are."

"I think I do," Stanley offered. "We're actually pretty close I think," he continued. "I think we can take this elevator to the twenty-seventh floor... I doubt much else is on that level other than the roboticizer."

"If we can," Seltic said. "I doubt the computer in the elevator will respond to us now that we're blacklisted."

Kyros stepped over to the double door of the massive elevator and replied, "No need. We'll make our own path." He took a step back before throwing himself into the weak door. The force of his impact snatched the sliding doors from their slots and sent the twisted sheets of metal tumbling down the elevator shaft. At the sound of metal clanging noisily against metal seconds later he assumed that the elevator car was below them. "Come on, let's go."

Seltic and Stanley followed Kyros into the shaft, each igniting their rockets and hurtling up the narrow tunnel. As the large painted numbers of each floor

zipped by, Kyros shouted down to Stanley, "You said the twenty-seventh floor, right?"

"Yeah," he shouted back, slowing in anticipation of arriving at the floor.

Kyros reduced the thrust from his rockets and slowed to a hover as he reached a bold twenty-seven painted across a pair of metal doors. With a determined kick he ripped the doors from the wall and scanned the vast room opened before him. He spotted a small squad of SWATbots milling about immediately and burst into the room, sneering with grim satisfaction as he aimed at the surprised machines.

His target toppled over and collapsed under his impact, prompting the remaining four to charge him. The outdated robots raised their arms to open fire seconds before they were cut down by a salvo of plasma shots from Seltic. Stanley and Seltic dashed over to Kyros, halting in amazement and fear of the great glass tube that occupied the center of the room. Each slowly scanned the maze of pipes, wires, cabling, and computer consoles that surrounded the dimly glowing tube sitting atop an innocent looking stage.

"Man... even without Robotnik around to use this thing it's terrifying," Seltic whispered to himself.

"Which is why it's going away right now!" Kyros shouted, raising his own personal weapons at the nearest important looking piece of equipment. He relented at the sound of a faint scraping of metal against metal. The trio turned to face the sound, surprised to find a small robotic bird scrabbling away from the violence that had just ended.

"Cluck..." Kyros whispered as hatred clouded his expression. The bird backed away from them and into a corner, letting out horrified screeches in the hopes that its master would return and save it. "If I can't kill Robotnik, at least I'll get you," he continued, raising his weapon. The bird's eyes snapped open as Kyros' weapon armed.

Kyros smiled evilly as the robot detonated like a bomb from his attack. "Your master will get his toot," he dictated to the ruined metal chunks sprawled across the floor before raising his weapon to the roboticizer, "But first, this thing is history!"

Seltic grabbed him by the arm and interrupted, "Wait a second... what about us?"

Kyros stared back for a moment before realizing his intent. "I hadn't really thought about it... do you think you can deroboticize us?"

"Well... I don't know for sure, but I'd like to find out before we level it!"

Kyros relented and said, "Okay. Get to work, but I don't think we've got much time before a small army led by the big guy himself shows up."

Seltic eagerly darted off to the large bank of computer screens and consoles decorating the far wall of the room, saying, "I'm on it!"

In the silence, Kyros found himself edgy. He glanced at Stanley and said, "Maybe we should check for cameras or something. We might be able to delay them for a minute or two if they don't know we're here." He searched the ceiling of the room for any signs of cameras or microphones, eventually making his way around behind the roboticizer. Immediately his eyes fixated on an odd assortment of cables reaching down to a chain-restrained robot sitting haphazardly against the wall.

As he stepped towards it, the robot's eyes snapped open and glared at him. It bared its teeth and snarled before jumping at him and being snatched back by its restraints. It fought at the chains and spat, "I told your beak-nosed little master that I wasn't going to tell you anything! I don't care what you do to me, I won't betray anyone!"

Startled at the sudden verbal attack, Kyros flinched and stepped backwards. As the robot calmed down and sank back into its prior sitting position, Kyros was able to confirm that the brown robot deer was not just another one of the random robots strewn about Robotropolis. "Kaplain, just calm down a sec while we get you out of there."

The deer instantly perked up and squinted through the dimly-lit room to study the two. "Kyros? Is... that you?"

"Yeah, it's us. So keep quiet while we bust you out of here," he replied, ripping the chains from their bolted facets along the wall.

Kaplain's eyes grew wide. "What happened to you? Were you captured?"

"Yeah, it's a long story that'll have to wait. Seltic's working on the roboticizer right now so we might be in some luck." Kyros answered, pulling a handful of the cables from computer ports under a panel on Kaplain's back. After removing the final cable and closing the panel, the two helped the deer to his feet.

Kaplain threw his freed arms around Kyros and whimpered, "Thank you! I was so worried that you were just going to leave me here."

Kyros backed away and motioned for Kaplain to quieten down. "We can't leave anyone behind, but like I said, you've got to stay quiet." After a nod of understanding from the deer, he led the two back around the massive platform and tube of the roboticizer to meet back up with Seltic.

Seltic glanced up at Kyros and asked after pressing a handful of keys on a keypad, "What was all of that about, back there?"

"We found someone," Kyros replied, shooing Kaplain into the open.

Seltic halted his work and exclaimed, "You found him?!"

Kyros jumped slightly at his tone and replied, "Yeah, but we don't have much time so get back to work and stop shouting."

The tenrec nodded and moved his hand across a touchpad on the computer desk, followed by another button press. "Well, we're in luck then. As far as I can tell, it's ready. Robotnik made the interface relatively easy to use for some reason." He looked across the faces staring back at him and asked, "So, who's first?"

Kyros repeated the survey and replied hastily, "No time to think, Stanley, you're up."

Stanley flinched at the order before uttering, "Uh, okay." He stepped nervously onto the podium beneath the raised tube, memories of his roboticization only hours before flooding back. As the tube descended around him and locked into place, he felt his legs grow weak, despite their robotic nature. A low hum filled the room moments later, slowly growing in volume and pitch as an emitter lowered from the ceiling and began to rotate slowly.

The three outside of the tube shielded their eyes instinctively as a bright glow engulfed him followed by a series of loud pistons locking into place. An innocent ping rang out from an unseen speaker as the tube receded into the ceiling once more, spilling thick fog into the room. As the smoke dissipated, Stanley's black fur and organic quills were slowly becoming visible. He raised a palm to his head and grumbled, "What a trip..."

Kyros dashed up to the platform without giving Stanley a chance to step down. He hurried him down and shouted to Seltic, "How soon until it's ready again?"

Seltic stared at a screen for several seconds and replied, "Good to go, get ready."

Kyros nodded and stood erect to allow the glass to envelope him as it did Stanley. The vast machine went through its motions as it did before, grinding mechanics whirling emitters and spewing an eerie fog as the tube rose into the ceiling. Kyros took a moment to stagger back to the ground, rubbing a large bruise across his chest and a multitude of minor cuts and wounds across his body. He groaned and muttered, "I guess it doesn't fix you before undoing the roboticization."

"Me next?" Kaplain eagerly asked, staring into Kyros' eyes for his approval.

Seltic looked up and said uneasily, "Uh... let me go next. I'll explain later." He watched the screen for a second before brushing past the sulking Kaplain to mount the roboticizer. "Just push the glowing button," he directed to Stanley.

Once more the machine performed its duty, whirring and humming for some time before opening to reveal Seltic stumbling around. He skipped from the platform just in time to avoid vomiting on the sensitive circuitry and wiring of the roboticizer. "Never want to do that again..." he squeaked after a moan. He forced himself to his feet and carefully examined Kaplain with his eyes before slumping over to the control console. "Okay, go ahead."

Kaplain let out an excited cheer and jumped onto the podium. As he situated himself, Seltic shot Kyros a worried look and said, "I hope you've got a plan to get us out of here in a hurry."

"We'll do something."

Seltic sighed and went on, "Right. Get ready." He thumbed the large glowing button and watched worriedly as the glass tube surrounded Kaplain. The glow of the deroboticization process engulfed the metallic deer, followed by the machinery descending to perform its duty. Seltic stepped away from the console to meet the others as the process drew to a close, staring intently into the obscured glass tube. He let out a sigh of relief as the tube rose and fumed as it had three times before, revealing the silhouette of a deer.

Kaplain stumbled down the steps to meet the others, his newly organic hooves clacking against the metal of the floor. He blinked in confusion a few times before slurring, "I feel... odd."

"What do you mean?" Seltic asked impatiently, studying his body once more.

Kaplain opened his mouth to reply but instead let out a series of violent coughs, spattering blood across the palm he used to cover his mouth. He staggered backwards a step, his eyes crossing before he collapsed to the ground with a confused grunt.

Seltic whimpered, "Oh no..." He dashed over to the fallen deer and examined him, fear rising as he spotted blood beginning to seep from under his left eyelid and ear.

"What the?" Kyros and Stanley asked in unison, rushing to join Seltic.

He looked up to them and quickly answered, "I was worried this would happen. The repairs I made weren't perfect enough, and the deroboticizer must have copied it exactly. There's no telling what might be wrong with him." At a curse Kyros muttered he continued, "We've got to get out of here right now if he's going to have any chance at living through this."

Kyros began to speak as the mechanisms of the elevator behind them began to grind to life. "Oh no..." he muttered. "Is there any other way out of here?"

Every conscious member of the team scanned the room for doors, scrambling around in the hopes of finding an exit. After an agonizing wait, Stanley suddenly pointed to the ceiling near one of the walls and shouted, "The roof!"

"Great, no time to think about it. I've got Kaplain, you two hurry up the ladder," Kyros directed as he jogged over to Kaplain. He scooped him up, ignoring the profuse amount of blood beginning to drip from the corner of his mouth. As the others rapidly scaled the ladder he charged to the wall and grasped one of the metal rungs. He sighed in relief at the sound of the hatch being forced open and followed the others through the opening, lugging his limp friend with him as best he could.

The sight of dozens of cables and protective piping running along a long access duct sent a chill of worry down his spine. He stared into the darkness, noting a faint light filtering onto the duct wall a distance away. "I hope that leads to the outside, let's hurry," he told the others after pulling the bloodied Kaplain into the shaft and sealing the hatch behind him. Thunderous robotic footfalls echoed in the room below, followed by the clomping and bellowing of Robotnik.

"Not much time," Stanley added unnecessarily. "What do we do once we get out?"

"We'll think about it then, just go," Kyros whispered back, hoping to avoid attracting the attention of the overweight overlander shouting at his minions mere meters below.

The three slipped along the cramped path towards the source of the light, and stopped below a large grating overhead. A faint cool intermittent breeze blew through the grating, refreshingly brushing against Kyros' fur. Without a word, Seltic and Stanley fiddled with an old and broken handle to loosen the grating, sliding it out of its slot as the rusted metal crumbled apart.

Kyros allowed them to wiggle through the tight opening before handing Kaplain to them. As he prepared to follow them, the caption inscribed on one of the myriad pipes caught his eye, "Natural Gas – Extremely Flammable."

Before sliding through the opening, he rammed the sole of his boot, the only clothing Robotnik left on the three before roboticizing them, onto a join in the pipes. A satisfying clang of smashed piping clambering onto the metal duct rang out, followed by a faint hiss and a smile on Kyros' face.

"What was that?" Seltic immediately demanded.

"I'm just making sure that Robotnik remembers we were here. By the way, we should get out of here very quickly," he replied before catching a glance of Kaplain partially regaining consciousness. The deer winced in pain for a second before coughing out another gout of dark blood and pressing his hand against his chest. "For more reasons than one," he finished.

He began frantically searching the outcropping that they now stood on for any way down. The ventilation duct behind them disappeared into the building a short distance away, and although there were a number of pylons reaching to the command center from other buildings, they were all too far below or above to reach. He began to regret smashing the pipe now that the only escape seemed to be back into the command center. That way even though Kaplain might not make it, the others could.

"We're trapped... we'll have to go back through the command center," Stanley said, interrupting his train of thought.

"No we can't, I broke a gas line back in the duct. It could go off soon..."

Seltic glared at his as if to shout, "You did what!?" Instead the tenrec swallowed and peered over the edge of the outcropping. "What do we do then? Wait here and be killed by the explosion?"

Kyros prepared to answer as Stanley grabbed him by the shoulder and pointed off in an indeterminate direction. "SWATbot pod incoming!"

"Great, we've got no weapons..." Kyros grumbled. He hesitated in thought as he debated whether trying to deal with the SWATbots or hoping that the gas wouldn't ignite was safer. As he finally decided to dart back to the pseudo-safety of the duct he noted the pod slowing as it approached the outcropping. Instead of opening fire with its under slung repeating lasers, it swerved to bring itself against the ledge.

The side door on the pod slid up moments later, but instead of revealing a metal monster intent on bringing Kyros back to its master, the familiar face of a gray squirrel stared back at him. "You guys need a lift?"


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

_Armadi_

_2:13 PM, Two days later_

Maya rubbed her sore wrists a few times before taking the stage of the cafeteria-auditorium in her usual slow and charismatic pace. She brushed a long strand of silver hair from her eyes and faced her anticipating audience. "Before anything else, I think I should just tell everyone what a good job they've done over the past few weeks. We've all had to deal with personal losses, difficult choices, injury, and overall an undue amount of stress." She leaked a mild smile at the round of approving laughter and continued, "But, despite everything that's happened, we've pulled through and put Robotnik in his place. We've foiled one of the most ambitious and bold plots of his career, and even dealt a solid blow to Robotropolis itself."

She raised her arms and finished, "And for that, I think we all deserve a little rest and enjoyment." With a gesture to the double doors at the far end of the meeting room that hid the kitchen, Marcus appeared with a large plate of assorted desserts and foods. "So eat up! I've made plenty for everyone, and I have a special surprise in the back."

She skipped down the steps of the stage with an unusual burst of energy and wound her way past the crowd beginning to form around the food tray Marcus set down. After a brief disappearance through the doors, she returned with a large multi-tiered cake. The others immediately made a berth for her, eagerly staring down the rare treat. "I know how much you all love my cakes, so I scrounged up the ingredients from what we raided and baked it overnight."

"Almost getting killed by robots was worth it for this!" Kyros joked, prompting another round of chuckles.

"Oh, I don't know about that," Maya replied, the bare skin around a bandage on her cheek flushing red. "Now, enjoy, but remember that the princess is holding another little celebration tonight at Knothole, and has invited us along."

Stanley accepted a slice of cake from Maya and asked, "I take it they made it through all of this alright?"

"I believe so," Maya answered. "I only had a few minutes to speak with her, but she seemed in good spirits."

"That's good," Tantalus added from behind Stanley.

Kyros raised an eyebrow and said, "A little too good for me. We took all of the fire from Robotnik."

"Yes, well I think we made out alright. We're all still here and alive," Maya responded.

Seltic sighed and spoke up, "I'm just a little shaken up about how close we were to not being alright. If I never see the roboticizer again, it'll be too soon."

"Maybe you won't," Kyros added with a smile. "I don't think there's much of it left."

Seltic thought over the explosion they witnessed engulf the upper floors of the command center as they left and replied, "Yeah, let's hope so anyway." He placed his hands in his pockets and went on, "Well, it'll probably take him a few months to rebuild it. I wouldn't count on it being gone for too long."

The group accepted his comment and passed it off, not wanting to think about the subject any longer than they had to. They each took their turn gathering their preference of food on a plate and took their usual places along the tables in the cafeteria.

Kyros plopped into his seat across from Seltic and swallowed a spoonful of ice cream. "I wonder what the princess has planned for tonight," he said to Tantalus.

The squirrel swallowed and replied, "Probably something similar to this. I'd like to meet them all again, we didn't really get much of a chance earlier."

"Yeah, I guess. I'm going to be riding that blue hedgehog all night for not busting us out," Kyros continued, flashing a smile. "And I suppose you're going to be following the princess around constantly like you did while she was here."

Tantalus scratched a bandage on his arm and chuckled uneasily. "Come on, she's cute."

"I don't think Sonic would like that," Seltic added as he fell into his seat. "He seems awfully possessive to me."

"Forget him. Besides, he'll be busy with me," Kyros replied. "Anyway, have you done anything with the SWATbot pod we brought back with us? After Robotnik took our hovercraft we'll be needing it to get there tonight."

Selic shook his head nonchalantly. "Nope. It's going to take a lot of work to do what I want to do to it, so I'm not in any hurry to get around to it. Kaplain said he used to be a mechanic, so maybe he can lend me a hand. It's still got plenty of fuel left in it though, so it should last us for a week or so."

Kyros swallowed another scoop of ice cream and asked, "How is he anyway?"

"Same as before as far as I know, still out of it. Sissera would probably know."

Kyros opened his mouth to shout the question to her when he spotted her walking by on her way to her usual spot next to Maya. She paused next to him and asked, "Kaplain?" After a nod from the three at the table she said, "He's doing better actually. He's in and out of consciousness, but after I gave him the clotting injection he starting recovering. He'll probably be back on his feet in a few days."

"Sounds good. We can always use another gun while we're in Robotropolis, if he's not another wimp like Seltic here," Kyros replied with a joking smile.

"We'll see," Sissera said, stepping off.

Seltic shoveled something into his mouth before asking Kyros, "Any idea what time we've got to leave? If nothing else I guess I should give the pod a look over, and maybe change something so the Knothole freedom fighters don't think we're a bunch of SWATbots and blow us away."

Kyros shrugged. "Maya's done all of the talking, she hasn't told me anything." He looked over Seltic to spot Maya and shouted, "What time is the get together tonight?"

She blinked in response for a second before replying, "Well, the princess said to be there anytime after six. So, I suppose whenever we get ready to leave after that."

"Should be plenty of time," Seltic added. "That even gives me some time to catch some sleep first."

* * *

Seltic glanced through the relatively large crowd milling around in the center of the town of Knothole and watched in amusement as Kyros subtly stalked Sonic as the hedgehog conversed with his friends. The prospect of possibly having to break up a quarrel entered his mind moments before the coyote they had met a few days before strolled over to him.

The coyote, Antoine, interrupted the silence through his thick Mercian accent, "So, you 'ave destroyed the roboticizer, no?"

Seltic faked a chuckle. He pointed at Kyros through the twilight engulfing them and replied, "Well, sort of. You'll have to talk to Kyros about that."

"Ah. Monsieur echidna doesn't seem to be in the talking mood right now, perhaps later."

"Yeah, after he gets done with Sonic, or so he says."

Antoine cut him a sly expression and added before trotting off, "Oh ho, really now? Perhaps I should join him after all. That hedgehog is in need of something."

Seltic watched him trot off into the crowd before slipping off himself. He had never been particularly comfortable in gatherings, and the Knothole Freedom Fighters were still strangers. His memory of the settlement was limited by his only brief visit. He spotted a wooden staircase fixed to the outside of the cabin next to him and instantly recalled seeing a balcony atop the building. The weather worn boards creaked under his weight as he worked his way up the steps.

He peered over the roof as he crested the steps, his hopes of finding an empty spot lost as he spotted a walrus and half-roboticized rabbit staring into the darkening sky. The rabbit, Bunnie, turned from her post to face him moments later, saying with a smile, "Oh, hello."

Seltic fumbled with his words for a second before answering, "Uh, hi. I didn't think anyone was up here."

The walrus named Rotor motioned for him to join them and added, "Well, come on up. We've got something to show you." He pointed up to the sky. As a flash of light formed and streaked over the horizon he continued, "See that?"

"Yeah, a meteor?" Seltic replied, mounting the balcony.

"That's what we thought at first too, but it's not," Rotor went on. "It looks like destroying the control center did a lot more good than I would have expected."

Seltic raised an eyebrow and asked, "You mean it's one of-"

Rotor interrupted, "Yep, it's a satellite. After you guys knocked out the control center, they all lost their guidance and lost orbit. They've been crashing to Mobius for hours now."

Seltic smiled. "That's great, I was worried that Robotnik would just rebuild the control center and resume the attacks."

"We did too, but it looks like things turned out for the better." The walrus looked him over and said, "You're Seltic right? The tech specialist?"

"Yeah," Seltic answered modestly.

"Well, then maybe you know for sure, but rumor's had it that you guys also destroyed the roboticizer too," Bunnie asked.

Seltic sighed and looked down. "It's a long story... but kind of. Remember when we were cut off from you guys in the jail?" The two nodded, prompting him to continue, "Well, Robotnik captured all of us. Kyros, Stanley, and I were almost killed in the attack... and Robotnik decided to save our lives by roboticizing us." Bunnie gasped and instinctively rubbed her roboticized arm."Yeah, I know," Seltic groaned. "We almost ended up killing our friends under his orders."

"What happened?" Rotor asked.

Seltic showed him the neural overrider and answered, "I built this little device based on some data I collected from Kaplain, the roboticized deer we had with us last time. It wasn't quite enough to overcome the roboticizer itself, but with a little mental trauma we were able to break out of the mind control." He stuffed his hands in his pockets and continued, "So, Kyros and Stanley flew off and managed to level the control center. After that, we headed to the roboticizer."

"To deroboticize yourselves?" Bunnie asked again.

"We originally intended to just destroy it, but after I looked over the controls I figured out how to use it well enough to deroboticize us. We'd just finished doing that when Kaplain was almost killed by the process, and we had to leave. Kyros broke a gas line though, which set off a nasty explosion. We hope that managed to destroy it, but we don't know for sure."

Rotor scratched his chin and said, "Yeah, but it probably doesn't really matter. I'm sure Robotnik will build a new one soon enough. He thought for a second and asked, "But, what was that about somebody almost being killed by it?"

Seltic smiled and replied, "Another long story, you might want to have a seat."

* * *

Kyros hopped to his feet as the SWATbot pod hummed to a halt and spoke aloud, "Well, that was fun I suppose, but I'm ready for some sleep." He pressed a button to open the side hatch and asked, "What time is it anyway?"

Sissera pulled herself to her feet and replied after a pause, "A little after two I think."

The group filtered through the hatch into the dark garage interior, groggily huddling around the pod. Kyros found Maya's gaze and asked sarcastically, "You're not going to put me on watch duty, are you?"

She chuckled lightly and shook her head. "No, no, I think we've all earned a full night's sleep."

"I'll probably be up all night anyway," Seltic added. "I've still got a ton of stuff to look over from before all of this started, and I didn't have much luck sleeping last night. I guess I can keep a watch on the monitors for anything."

Kyros cut him a playful expression and said, "Yeah, you have fun with that." He led the knot of people out of the garage and into the sparsely-lit street sprawling through the center of Armadi. His eyes danced along the lamps staggered along the road as he strolled towards the cafeteria to get something to drink before heading to bed, eventually settling on a sudden shift in the shadows around the buildings at the end of the settlement.

He glanced back to the tangle of people following him to make certain that none of them were the source before raising his hand and announcing, "Hold up guys, I see something moving ahead." As they all fell silent and crouched behind what cover they could find, he studied the shambling shadow ahead. It appeared to unsteadily stagger down the steps from Sissera's side of the tenrec's house, revealing a pair of sprawling antlers on its head as it passed near one of the streetlights.

"Kaplain?" he called, slightly confused. Instantly, the shadowed creature halted under the light and looked back, revealing the brown-furred deer.

Kaplain stood upright from his hunched position and squinted through the light, blinking to adjust his vision to the night. "Huh? Who's there?"

"It's us," Kyros replied, taking a step towards him. "We thought you were a bot or something."

"Where am I? What happened?" Kaplain went on weakly, taking a moment to stare off towards the far end of the town.

Maya followed Kyros over to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. She looked him in the eye and spoke softly, "You're back in Armadi. Something went wrong when they tried to deroboticize you. We were worried that you wouldn't make it."

At her words, Kaplain followed her arm with his eyes, jerking away with a gasp as he noticed the fur on his shoulder. He raised his hands and stared into his palms for a few seconds before rotating them around and studying every detail as though he'd never seen them before. His jaw dropped as he ran his fingers across his furry cheek. "I'm... normal again?"

Seltic smiled and replied, "Yeah. Remember when we rescued you? We deroboticized ourselves before Robotnik showed up, but it didn't work right on you where I'd made repairs on you earlier."

Sissera chimed in, "We barely got you back here in time, but you pulled through. You'll probably be sore and weak for a while, but as far as I can tell you'll be fine."

Kaplain nodded in understanding, tears of joy beginning to darken the fur around his eyes. He slumped to his knees and grabbed Maya around the legs, sniffling incoherently. "Thank you all, I owe you my life," he muttered at last.

Maya placed her hand gently on his head and replied, "We only did what we would for anyone in trouble." She helped him to his feet and continued, "But, now that you're one of us I think it's time we get you something to wear and eat." She pointed at Kyros and said, "I hope you don't mind a trench coat, it's about all we have left."

"That's fine, whatever you have." He looked her in the face and eagerly continued, "But right now I'd like to take you up on that food offer. I don't think I've ever been so hungry."


	15. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

_Robotropolis_

_Two hours after the destruction of the satellite control center_

"Sir, it's been hours, are you alright?" Snively meekly asked his uncle.

Robotnik's eyes tracked to meet Snively. He shifted himself under the giant pile of rubble that was once the ceiling and wall of the room and growled. "Yes, Snively. I'm just making certain that I remember this moment for all eternity."

Snively swallowed and stared out of the gaping hole where the wall once was and groaned. "Repairs will take months. And that's assuming that the roboticizer hasn't been completely destroyed." He glanced at the tangle of wires and piping sprawling underneath another portion of collapsed ceiling and added,

"But I'm not hopeful."

"Yes, Snively, I'm aware," Robotnik said from his seat beneath the rubble.

"You're taking this well, sir," Snively replied, caution edging its way into his voice. "We've lost an enormous amount of time and resources."

"Again, Snively, I am aware. But, I really have lost nothing."

Snively scratched his bald head and asked, "What do you mean?"

"I may have lost the satellites, but in turn I have learned many powerful lessons." Robotnik pulled himself free of the pulverized ceiling debris with the help of a SWATbot and faced his nephew. "For one, I have learned to not underestimate my foes. No matter the circumstances... never underestimate that blasted echidna. He is perhaps just as much a nuisance as the hedgehog is."

"I agree sir."

Robotnik strolled over to the remains of the roboticizer and stared into the chaotic pile of unrecognizable metal. "But, even more important, if what the robots tell me about the surveillance tapes is true, we may have learned something far more valuable about the roboticizer."

"What, sir?"

Robotnik smiled evilly and chuckled. "Well now Snively, even I don't know the limits of what we might be able to do now. Let's just say that when the roboticizer is rebuilt, I have a few modifications to be put in place. The least of which not being an improved mind control system."

Snively joined him in observing the destroyed machinery and added, "That sounds good sir. We can't afford to have any more of the robots turning traitor."

"No, but I believe that deer has taught us far more than that. But, I'll tell you more as I develop the idea further. For now, we should just begin rebuilding the roboticizer... the modifications I have in store could well take years to implement."

"I'll have the robots get started right away, sir. But, it will probably take us two or three months to reconstruct it alone." Snively looked away and took a deep breath. "There is one more thing, sir." As Robotnik impatiently glared back, Snively raised the scorched remains of a small robot to eye level. "We found this sir... I think the echidna was responsible."

Robotnik's eyes grew wide as he snatched the destroyed robotic chicken's head. "Cluck..." He crumpled the part in his robotic hand and snarled before shouting incoherently into the sky. He glowered at the floor and clenched his teeth together before hissing, "Oh... that echidna has signed own death sentence! Mark my words, Snively, I will have his head... make my words!"


End file.
